A Mistborn in Republic City
by Wyrmhero
Summary: After testing metals one day for his father, Ashur finds himself transported to Republic City, with barely any idea how. Faced with a strange new place outside The Final Empire, he has to find as much out about it as possible and - if he can - return home. Set pre-Mistborn and runs at the same time as Korra. Focuses on the Mistborn half more than on Korra.
1. Welcome to Republic City

I wrote this because I think Mistborn needs more crossovers. It's a series with built-in crossovers via the whole Cosmere, and yet no-one's written a story with a series that makes sense (aside from Star Wars) as of this time. I understand not writing a crossover with other Cosmere novels, since that's Sanderson's job.

Hopefully someone who's better and more determined will be inspired by this fic and write their own, larger Crossover. I can tell you that if this continues, there will be spoilers for the Mistborn Trilogy and Avatar: Legend of Korra: Book of Air, but nothing else at this point. This story is set pre-Final Empire and intersects with the Book of Air, but it is less about Korra and more about how an inhabitant of the Final Empire reacts to the Avatar world. Would there be crossing points between Ashur and Korra? Certainly, but Ashur is not going to become a main character of Korra's story as easily as that.

So why Avatar and Mistborn? Originally it was from a massive crossover RP that I'm no longer a part of. I had a Mistborn character from Alloy of Law, and there was a character from just post-Book of Fire Avatar. Also, the Mistborn TRPG rules work very well with Avatar, in my opinion. It was also interesting how the worlds had similarities between The Final Empire and The Fire Nation. I didn't set it during Aang's period though because it'd just become 'How Avatar would have been if there was a Mistborn', and that doesn't seem particularly interesting. In addition, I find Korra's time period much more interesting, due to the class of Bending and non-Bending, and how the world has changed. So I set it there, because how would a person from The Final Empire react to the world actually _changing_?

* * *

Ashur Shezler stared out at the street that he found himself in. Everything had changed. His father asked him to try a metal out. He was Mistborn, so it would've obviously worked if it were a proper metal. It seemed that it was.

And now he was here, in a street that definitely did not exist in Mantiz, populated with people who did not look like anyone who lived in Mantiz either. Their clothes were a dull brown-ish colour, by and large, and they wore the formal sort of waistcoat that Ashur would have associated with his father when he was meeting business contacts.

The street itself was clean, at least compared to those of Mantiz. The skaa here must be particularly efficient to clear the streets here that quickly. A quick glance up called that statement into question. He could not see a single flake of ash in the air, or even on any of the houses. He couldn't think of anywhere in the Empire that did not have ashmounts. Even the edges of the Empire had some.

Ashur reached into himself and burnt one of the eight metals that he had inside his body at the moment. He chose tin, allowing him to enhance his senses to a ridiculous degree. He winced as the light seemed to be coming through much stronger than normal, thanks to there being less mist and ash in the sky. He wisely chose not to flare it, and listened quickly whilst he looked around.

The fact that there was none of the grey ash that there was back in Mantiz did not mean that the air was perfectly clear. There was a definite taste to the air of carbon, probably from a metallurgist or forge that existed on the edge of the town. There were unfamiliar sounds as well; like a heavy wagon on the cobblestones of the road, but no clip-clopping of horseshoes to go with them.

A group of skaa were talking to one another. He could tell they were skaa from their uneducated tone of voice. Judging from how the group carried themselves, they probably counted themselves as one of the so-called skaa 'thieving crews'. As if skaa would know what was worth stealing.

He burnt pewter and iron just to be safe. They were two more of the four physical metals, along with steel, iron's opposite. Pewter was tin's paired metal, enhanced his strength, his dexterity, his balance and his endurance, making it a necessity in a fight. Iron didn't improve his body, but instead thin blue lines sprouted from his torso, showing him where all nearby sources of metal were. He found it strange that these skaa only had a coin pouch on them. No weapons, not even a poorly concealed knife. Then again, if they were Steelpushers, that might be all the weapon they needed.

He walked up to them, the tassels of his blue-grey Mistcloak trailing behind him in the mild wind. They were designed to do that. A Mistcloak was the ultimate treasure he possessed, for it marked him as one of the handful of individuals in the world who could burn all 10 – 11 now, he corrected himself – Allomantic metals. The other, more unfortunate nobles could only burn one of the physical or mental metals. Owning a Mistcloak displayed to the world that you were of high status, and were not to be trifled with.

Which is why he was surprised when the skaa ignored him.

"Skaa," he said, addressing the trio in what he thought was his best imitation of his father's voice. He'd been practising since he was ten, so after six years he thought he'd become quite good at it. "I demand that you tell me in which city I am in, and which Dominance."

One of the skaa dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "Go away kid."

Ashur wasn't sure whether it was the dismissal because he was a child, or the dismissal by a _skaa_ which annoyed him more. "I am the son of Antillius Shezler, head of the Shezler household and noble of Mantiz, and I demand that you tell me where I am!"

"Never heard of him," the skaa replied, this time striking him away with his hand.

The blow was so unexpected that Ashur didn't react to it. He could've easily blocked it and thrown the skaa on the ground, even with the height difference between them. The mere _idea_ of a skaa striking him, a noble, was just unthinkable. Already his father would have had the man killed for his insolence. Now, his father would have been... creative.

He hit the ground on his Mistcloak, glad for the fact that the streets seemed to be mostly clean. He'd hate to dirty his only clothes this quickly. Now he took a moment to look at them again, he noticed a few things he'd missed before. One of them had gold eyes, something he'd never seen before, and wore clothes with a red shade to them. Dull red, perhaps, but it was more than any impertinent skaa should be wearing. The other two wore green, a more fitting colour, but still more colour than they would be allowed if they lived in Mantiz. They looked quite different to the people of Luthadel as well. Their hair was the same colour as his own – black – but the face, the skin and the muscles were all very different.

The skaa laughed at him – at him! He got up, maintaining a little distance, and dusted his hands off, rage bubbling below the surface. He was not going to shout at them though, that would be beneath him. Instead he did something that would enrage them much more. He turned off his iron and burnt steel instead. The same blue lines stretched from him and the coin pouches, but this time, he yanked on them. It wasn't a physical action, but suddenly the light pouches shot towards him.

Ashur caught the leather bags easily, since they weren't moving particularly fast. He wished at this point that he had proper pockets in his shirt, or the time to tie them to his belt, but instead he merely emptied one of them onto the floor.

The skaa now were watching him with their own curiosity and annoyance. "Look kid, I don't know who you think you are, but no Metalbender is going to make fun of the Triple Threat and get away with it, understood?" the gold-eyed one said.

One of the ones in green nodded in agreement. He moved his hand and Ashur felt a rumbling. A stone wall erupted behind him, and Ashur wheeled around in amazement. How did someone move mere rock like that? "Maybe if you get on your knees, beg and pick it all up, we'll forgive you. Maybe." A sadistic grin grew on the trio's faces.

Ashur was amused. Though they displayed an ability he had not heard of before, he wasn't intimidated by them. He dropped another pouch, and opened the third, taking some coins out. "A trick like that doesn't scare me." He pushed on the coins, and they shot out at the skaa, gathering a small amount of speed before they struck them around the waist.

They did not strike with enough speed or power to be particularly dangerous, although they'd have some spectacular bruises soon. "Little brat," the golden-eyed one said, making a punch at Ashur.

Ashur was amused, since the strike was simply not going to connect, but grabbed the man's arm all the same, pulling him with more strength than he should have had thanks to his pewter-burning, throwing him into the rock wall behind him. The rock cracked under the force, and he was down.

Another surprise to add to the list that had been created today though; the man's hand spat fire. "Lord Ruler," Ashur muttered. His father had to find out about this. No, the Inquisition did! Skaa with the ability to move rock and spout flames? They were a danger to the Empire.

He dropped a coin and threw himself backwards with a steelpush, onto the pillar of earth that one of the 'Triple Threat' had created. Survival was more important, he had to get back to tell an Obligator about this.

There was a growl as the other two men made to grapple his feet, but Ashur dropped another coin and pushed off, this time onto a rooftop. He took off at a speed that surprised his apparent adversaries, bounding off one roof to another with another steelpush. Within seconds he was gone, and all there was to show for the fight was one man unconscious, the road partially damaged, some coins on the floor, and the pouch of coins in his hand.

Ashur stopped after a dozen or so streets. It was impossible to chase a determined Mistborn. At least, usually. It was still daylight here, and the day was not a friend of those who preferred secrecy and shadow. Worse, the fact he wore the Mistcloak made him stand out. But still, his raw speed meant it'd take them ages to find him.

He sat down, and looked around. No sign of an ashmount. The city seemed to be massive, though not as big as Luthadel. The lack of the spires of Kredik Shaw made it seem even larger, as he had an unobstructed view of the city. There weren't any noble keeps either. There were only a few large buldings near the centre.

He couldn't see a single Obligator or Inquisitor. Usually they were relatively easy to pick out of a crowd. Skaa would step aside quickly for the former, and just flee from the latter. Nobles would be following the Obligator, trying to ingratiate themselves, and keep out of the way of the Steel Ministry.

He realised then that he wasn't hiding his Allomantic pulses to any other Allomancers. He burnt copper, which created a shroud around him. He was quite skilled in copper, which meant the radius of the shield was only just past his own body. Copperclouding, as it was called, prevented those burning bronze from detecting any of the unique Allomantic pulses that each metal gave off when burnt.

Ashur could relax a bit more now. With pewter keeping his body in top-shape, and tin alerting him to anyone sneaking up, and copper hiding his Allomantic presence, he was pretty well hidden. His cloak also camouflaged him slightly against the roof if he drew it around himself, which was the reason he chose this specific one to stop on.

He burnt bronze himself, since copperclouding didn't stop him from detecting other people's burning. He frowned to himself when he couldn't pick up anyone else burning metal at that point in time. That didn't mean there were no Allomancers around, but the idea that there was no-one burning metal around him was a little disconcerting. Allomancers were rare, but you usually heard something, a dull background noise which indicated the general presence of Allomancers.

There wasn't even the background noise. It seemed that wherever he was, it was far enough away from Allomancers that they didn't register at all. It was utterly bizarre for him to have found a city without them. There didn't even seem to be any nobles, or if there were, the skaa dressed as well as them on the whole.

It was at this point that Ashur turned to what he had seen earlier, the conjuring of earth and flame. They had also called him a 'Metalbender'. Perhaps they were unused to the other metals that Allomancers had access to, and only knew the pushing and pulling metals. That was understandable, since they were the only ones that had obvious effects, but the name didn't make sense even then. Iron and steel affected metal in just one way: pulling and pushing metals (respectively) in a direct line from your centre of mass, depending on the relative masses of you and the metal in question. Bending metals was all but impossible without a specific set-up or very malleable metal.

Perhaps he had managed to used that metal to transfer himself out of the Final Empire. Maybe they had other... systems, whatever they would be called. That definitely made them a threat. He had to – somehow – get out of this place and back home. The problem was that he had never even heard of civilisation outside of the Final Empire, let alone a city on this scale.

He'd definitely need to spend more time here, not just to find out how to get home, but also to find more information out about these systems. His father was a metallurgist who spent his life trying to discover new metals for his family to use. He'd discovered whatever it was that sent him here, and he was feeling very confident about an alloy of atium. Hopefully this talent for discovering ran in his own blood, and he would have as much success.

He didn't feel particularly bad about being so far from home, not yet anyway. He was fond of his family, but he was a noble. Nobles didn't spend too much time together, as a rule. Besides, Ashur was the heir to the Shezler family, and a Mistborn at that. He couldn't become depressed at something so pathetic as misplacing himself.

In essence, he decided on three goals for his stay here: Firstly, to find as much out about this 'Bending' as he could, secondly to learn where this place was on earth, and how much a threat they were to the Final Empire, and thirdly, if he could, he had to find another nugget of whatever metal it was that had taken him here.

He wasn't feeling too good about his third objective. In all likelihood, he'd use his newfound geographical knowledge to plot a course home. He added another goal as he thought about it; he wasn't a noble here, and had no money, and very few metals left. He'd need to find a place to stay, and a way to make money.

Theft was probably the easiest manner with which to get it, since at night he would be practically unstoppable. It wasn't a noble thing to do, however, and he'd like to avoid it if he could. Work would be hard to find, considering his age and build. He was also unlikely to find a family to take him in; he had no contacts here, and he'd merely end up being used by whatever noble took him in. He had no illusions about a skaa taking him in.

On the other hand, perhaps there was a fourth option. The skaa that he had attacked and been attacked by earlier had mentioned something named the 'Triple Threat'. They did indeed seem to be thieves themselves. Perhaps he could thief from them in turn. It would be suitably ironic, and in a way, for a noble cause. It was an idea he could get behind, and he'd probably find out more about Bending as well.

In the meantime though, he was hungry. He felt a few of the strange coins they used here in Republic City, as he had overheard it been called. The name meant nothing to him. Presumably 'Republic' was a word they had created here. They were awkward to use compared to the boxings from home, which were designed to be used by Steelpushers. He'd have to get used to that as well.

He took a few steps towards the edge of the rooftop and looked out for a vendor. He'd have to spend some of his precious coins on food, but at least he had a plan.

If nothing else, Ashur liked it when he had plans.

* * *

Incidentally, Antillius Shelzer is a canon Mistborn character, very important to kicking the plot of the first book off. He's found in The Eleventh Metal, and is the person who creates the ingot of Malatium that Kelsier has throughout The Final Empire.


	2. A Week Later

Well, it's been suggested that I continue this by one person, and since I had a lot of thoughts about this after posting it, why not?

* * *

The most disconcerting thing about where he had found himself, he decided after just one day, was the night-time. It was as though the shroud of mist and ash that littered The Final Empire just didn't exist here. He had asked about ashmounts here, and found that here they were named 'volcanoes', and that they only really existed to the west, in a place named 'The Fire Nation'.

It was a strange thing, Ashur decided, to be able to see the stars so clearly and so plain. Mistborn were the undisputed lords of the night back home, because only they, with tin to enhance their senses, could pierce the veil that descended upon them during it. It also slightly colder here, which he found strange, since there was more sunlight. Another mystery to set aside for later.

The second strangest thing, he found after a week, was the food that they ate. Back home, meats and root vegetables were favoured, because they were pretty much the only thing that would grow there in sufficient quantity. Vast swathes of each Province were given over to farming, since the soil was so poor.

Here, they enjoyed mostly fish, a product barely eaten at home because of the effort it took to remove the ash that clogged them up. Ash fell into the small lakes that dotted The Final Empire, and as the fish swam around, they swallowed more and more of it until finally their gills became blocked. That was pretty much the main cause of death for fish. Fresh fish, therefore, was something of a delicacy.

There was also a strange grain that they ate, which they named rice. It had a different texture to the poor-quality wheat-and-barley bread he was used to. He was starting to miss baywraps quite a bit. Wheat was, apparently, eaten here, but it was nowhere near as common as rice.

And the spices that they put on everything... Ashur knew that he was forever spoiled now, as far as food went. Everything would taste so bland to him. It was partially his fault though, for burning tin every time he ate so as to get more of the flavour from his taste buds.

Connected to the fish, the third oddest part of this place was the ocean that they built the city next to. He wondered why it simply didn't sink in. But no, they even had a little island slightly further out, but apparently that was for specific people only. Airbenders, they were called. Apparently there were no others in the world. An easy target, in his opinion. If he wished to cripple this land, it would be all too easy.

He spent the first week gathering information from the city in a careful and sparse manner. It wouldn't be a good idea to make himself known as someone who knew nothing. The people were varied enough that he would just about get away with pretending to be a normal citizen, but his lack of knowledge would set him apart.

There were four types of Bender, apparently, each corresponding to what they called an element: water, earth, fire, and air. The elements manifested themselves in people depending on their parentage, and idea that Ashur could easily understand. It was somewhat similar with Allomancers, with requiring Allomancy to be in the family. The leeway there was five generations. He didn't know what it was here.

There was only one, however, that could use all four elements. It was either one or all – another idea that Ashur understood easily – but only 'The Avatar' had all four. Apparently their soul was passed down in a specific cycle, from one element to the next. It seemed to be their religion. Ashur would hesitate to describe the people as spiritual, on the whole, but they were definitely mystical. They believed in spirits, it seemed, and they had a mythology. It was ridiculous though. Only the Lord Ruler had an immortal soul; it just so happened to be connected to an immortal body and an immortal mind, in that case.

Ashur was currently staying in a small inn, using money that he had stolen from thieves. It was harder than he had expected, particularly when some of them turned out to be Benders as well as thieves. Quite a few of them were, as a matter of fact. He understood that though. Most skaa back home as well who were lucky enough to taste the true power of Allomancy – and thus damned and hunted down – turned to crime as well. They simply weren't able to handle the responsibility. It was too much for them to handle. It was yet more proof that skaa were inferior.

The problem with people being secretly able to manipulate these elements was that they didn't give off any indication until they actually attacked him with it. Unlike most metals, which were best left on most of the time, they had no use for doing so. The elements seemed to be only useful for combat, although he could see a few uses elsewhere. Firebending, for instance, could power forges, and waterbending could be used for transport. Apparently some could channel lightning – Lightning itself! - and this generated something else he wasn't quite used to, which was tame electricity.

The city militia, or police as they called themselves, used a poor imitation of iron and steel to travel across the city almost as fast as he did, using metal wires which they through around. It was quite disconcerting to see someone with abilities similar to Mistborn. They were also less limited than he was, even if it was less powerful. They also had to move to use their abilities; iron and steel required none of the gesturing and energetic motion that Bending seemed to require. He'd managed to avoid attracting their attention, but he'd had a few close calls.

"Have you heard about the Avatar, Ashur?" A friendly voice shook him out of his thoughts over breakfast on the morning of his eighth day in the inn he was staying at. He looked up and saw the guy who was staying in the room opposite him. Ashur had never bothered learning his name, since he had only just arrived two nights ago, and Ashur himself was planning on staying on the other side of the city this coming week. There didn't seem to be any point.

"What about her?" Ashur asked. He knew enough to know that the Avatar had come to the city recently, and that she was female. He didn't know when, or anything else though. He had a policy here of speaking little, so he didn't appear to be clueless on many matters.

"Apparently she joined a pro-Bending team," he said. "I heard it on the radio. I talked to some people who'd seen her earlier. She's wild, by all accounts."

The radio was an almost magical device that let someone's voice be heard large distances away. He thought that it'd be interesting to take one apart and see how it worked, if they weren't so much more expensive than he could afford. He wasn't sure what they could be used for in The Final Empire, but there was always money in being able to move information around.

"Oh?" Ashur didn't have to feign interest. He had wondered what this society's strongest fighter would be like. Just because she was a girl didn't mean she wasn't a powerful warrior. Mistborn were the same. They were so rare and powerful that genders didn't matter when it came to prowling around, sneaking, fighting, thieving and assassinating. "Where is she now then?"

"Air Temple Island," his supposed 'friend' replied. "Councilman Tenzin is her guardian. Kind of makes sense, since his dad was the Avatar. Though that's probably a little weird for him..."

Ashur let him ramble for a little, while he dredged up more information from the back of his mind. The city was ruled by five people, each of whom was elected from their respective society elsewhere in this place. That was what a republic apparently was.

Ashur personally didn't think much of the system. Not just because he knew that The Lord Ruler was simply better, but also because it didn't seem to make sense to him. The rich should clearly float to the top. It was a popularity contest, after all. They just needed to throw some money around, and they'd win. That wasn't allowed, apparently, but why not? The rich became rich through hard work, so they were clearly the most qualified.

The richest person in the city was apparently a Mister Sato, creator of the Satomobile, those weird horseless carriages that he'd seen around the place that were almost small ashmounts, with the amount of smoke they blasted out around the city. He was not a Bender, however, and therefore ineligable to rule. That did make sense though, at least somewhat. You wouldn't want someone unable to defend themselves in power, after all.

There was also the unbalance caused by the fact that there were two Waterbenders on the council. Waterbenders, to his mind, didn't seem to merit that any more than any of the other people here. Then again, there were barely any Airbenders either.

"...and of course the Equalists have been denouncing her as much as they can, because she's three-times the Bender everyone else is."

"Four," Ashur corrected him, distractedly. There was a word there that he wasn't familiar with. Pro-Bending was apparently a sport here, he knew a bit about it from just hearing how many fanatics there were out there. People used their elements to try and knock each other out of an area. It was probably war training in disguise. He'd have to keep an eye on that. "Equalists?"

"How can you not know about the Equalists?" The man opposite him said with surprise. "They're all over the radio right now!"

"I haven't been listening to the radio," Ashur replied, "I've been out most of the time. I cannot help it if no-one has mentioned them near me, can I?"

"I suppose not." He looked, to his credit, sheepish about his little outburst. "Sorry. Anyway," he started, "the Equalist movement is dedicated to bringing everyone down to the same level. The idea is that Benders and non-Benders should be on equal footing, and that no-one should be able to use those powers to take advantage of one another."

Ashur raised an eyebrow. "And then they'll make everyone as intelligent as each other, and everyone will be given the same muscles, and be the same height?" Ashur said, unable to stop the sarcasm creeping into his voice.

His breakfast companion sighed. "I don't know, I'm not interested in what they're doing."

"You're a Bender?" Ashur asked.

"No, I've just got bigger things to worry about. It's all very well saying that we should be equal, and we should try to change everything, but I can't get involved. I need that time to make ends meet, right? Time I spend complaining is time I could be working."

Ashur nodded. It was a standard procedure back home. Give the skaa too much work to do, and they'd either be too tired or have too much to do to revolt. Not that the skaa revolted all that much, though the joke that they were revolting cycled in and out of common usage every five years or so.

"I think I'll go and have a look at this," Ashur muttered to himself as he finished his breakfast.

The park nearest to Air Temple Island was where he was told he could find out more, in his information gathering. It was difficult to find things in this town. It was much bigger than Mantiz, and there were a lot more people on the street than he was used to. In a way, it reminded him of Luathadel. He'd been there once, gotten lost, and hated it.

There didn't seem to be many informants either, though there were quite a few beggars and children on the streets. They were a lower quality informant, since they didn't specifically deal in information. But still, a coin of the currency they used here, and they would talk your ear off if you wanted them to. They were often happy to, since it wasn't as if talking was work. Oh, the things Ashur could do here in a year. The underground wouldn't know what had hit it.

But that wasn't why he was here. He eventually spotted what he was after – a man in a green robe and a black hat with a red tassel stood behind a stand, where four piles of leaflets stood. The leaflets showed a masked man in a hooded coat, posing as if the sun shone from his hand. Ashur grimaced. It looked tacky, but it certainly got your attention.

"See the Revelation!" the man shouted into a strange conical device that magnified his speech. Ashur put a hand to his right ear, which was nearest, and switched off his tin. A disadvantage of enhanced hearing, unfortunately. He glared at the man, who didn't seem to be intimidated. Ashur was getting quite fed up of people dismissing him because of his youth. This wouldn't happen at home.

He walked over and grabbed a leaflet, glaring once more at the man behind the stall. He also burnt zinc, pulling on his emotions. He pulled on his fear, made him more worried, more anxious and scared. The man watched him, a little nervously after that but nowhere near what he wanted. Ashur didn't want to riot his emotions more, even if the man had never heard of rioting, just in case he noticed something odd.

"Uh, sir!" The man shouted, the device still in front of his mouth.

Ashur was glad he didn't switch his tin on again, and turned around. "What?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"You should take some more, sir," he said, finally getting it and removing the device. "For your friends."

Ashur gave him a look, one which said 'What makes you think I have friends?'. "I don't think that will be necessary."

"For your parents then," he missed Ashur's next look. "I insist, sir," the man said, collecting one from each pile and handing them to him. Ashur watched him. He was holding them in a curious manner, with one corner upturned. Ashur blinked as he realised there was something on the back of them.

He took the leaflets and turned them all over. Sure enough, each of the leaflets handed to him had a different sketch on the back, one of four. He realised that they fit together quite quickly, and looked up at the man. "A four-part map?" he asked.

"Not so loud," the man said, silently, in a voice that almost came out as a hiss.

Ashur handed back the three parts without the red cross on them. "Why not? It's not like you don't want people to see, is it?"

"You should take all four, sir. You'll need them all to find the location." The man blatantly ignored the question, starting to visibly become annoyed.

Ashur gave the one he had in his hand another look and then shrugged. "It won't be that hard. I'm not an idiot."


	3. The Revelation

The Equalist rally was being held in a nondescript warehouse by the docks. A man stood guard on the door, but he looked too confident to be on his own. There were probably people in the shadows, waiting for someone to try and force their way in.

In all honesty, he could've probably found it without the map. From the rooftops, it was easy to see the pattern of people late at night, all wandering in one direction. It certainly made things easier, however.

Ashur could probably get in with brass and zinc working in tandem, but it would be risky. Brass and zinc could never force someone to do something they wouldn't do normally, and it'd probably be obvious.

It was a good thing then that he was invited. He took the leaflet out of his pocket and walked towards the door. The man watched him carefully, but not in a concerned manner. Ashur was, after all, 'just' a child.

"This event is invitation only," the large man said, looking down at Ashur, though not in an annoyed manner.

Ashur stopped himself from rolling his eyes, barely. "I was given an invitation," he said, holding it up. "I assume I only need one, rather than all four."

The man nodded and stepped aside, allowing Ashur access through the door. "Come on in, my brother. The Revelation is upon us."

"I'm not your brother," Ashur said scathingly as he entered the building. As if he would ever consider himself a brother of a skaa. These non-Benders in particular; a third class citizen in their own society of second class people. The only ones he would ever consider equal to him were his fellow Mistborn.

He was greeted by a very large crowd, one which almost filled the entire warehouse. There were so many people there that even with tin, they quickly became faceless to him as he tuned the pointless people out. He hoped this so-called 'Revelation' was worth all the secrecy and mysticism that had already been displayed.

He didn't need to be particularly close, with his enhanced senses, but it was a good idea to be able to get a clearer view of the action. He surrounded himself with a blanket of brass, not targeting any emotion in the people around him, but just generally making them calmer and less on-guard. By doing this, Ashur was able to slowly push himself to the front, muttering to himself all the way.

The stage in front was lit by several bright lights as a thin mist slowly seeped over the stage. The sight of it calmed Ashur slightly, even if it was the wrong sort of mist, different from the type back home. It was strange that the mists were the thing he was homesick over the most.

Ashur jumped as a voice appeared from either side of the stage. More strange technology – speakers, these were called, he remembered, and they were how radios worked – hung from the walls from the front all the way to the back of the warehouse so people could hear easily.

"Please welcome your hero, your saviour, Amon!"

Ashur wasn't particularly impressed. There was no tension, no fanfare. Just a voice and then a man rose from the stage, as if it was using some theatrical device. It probably was, he thought to himself. Rising with him, behind him were six others. Five wore what seemed to be a uniform, the same black coat that the man at the stall wore. They also wore a strange mask with red eyepieces. Probably to hide their identity, but honestly it just seemed sinister. The sixth, closest to Amon, wore a set of goggles over his mask, and his nose down to his chin wasn't hidden. It seemed he wanted to show off his moustache, Ashur noted with amusement.

Amon himself seemed to be the man on the leaflets. He wore the same style of coat as the rest, though he seemed to have strange shoulderguards on his. His face was cloaked, but the white mask underneath was easily illuminated by the stage lights. 'A flair for the dramatic,' Ashur thought to himself. 'Let's hope this is worth it.' After all, this was basically just skaa entertainment.

Amon took a few steps forward, towards what looked like another speaker on a stand. He spoke into it, and his voice was magnified, though Ashur would've had little difficulty hearing him anyway.

"My quest for equality," he started, "began many years ago. When I was a boy, my family and I lived on a small farm. We weren't rich, and none of us were Benders. This made us very easy targets for the Firebender who extorted my father." He picked up the reverse-speaker and walked with it a little. "One day, my father confronted this man but when he did, that Firebender took my family from me." He paused, before turning back to the crowd. "And... He took my face." His hood fell back a little, as if to emphasise the mask. "I've been forced to hide behind a mask ever since."

"As you know, the Avatar has recently arrived in Republic City." At this, booing and jeering broke out from the crowd. Ashur shut off his tin before he was deafened. It really was like some low-class theatrical act, though at least it was more interesting. "If she was here, she would tell you that Bending brings balance to the world. But, she is wrong. The only thing Bending has brought to the world is suffering. It has been the cause of every war in every era."

How quaint. This place still had wars.

"But that is about to change. I know you have been wondering 'What is the Revelation?' You are about to get your answer. Since the beginning of time, the spirits have acted as guardians of our world." More mystical rubbish. "And they have spoken to me. They have said that the Avatar has failed humanity. That is why the spirits have chosen me, to usher in a new era of balance. They have granted me a power that will make equality a reality. The power to take a person's Bending away. Permanently!"

Ashur's eyes widened. That was what he needed. The perfect weapon against this place was to remove their own weapon. Even better if he was able to transfer it to himself. Perhaps he could even apply such a thing to Allomancy as well. The ability to take away Allomancy would be sure to give him a high position in the Steel Ministry. Perhaps it was even worth being made a Prelan. At the very least, the Steel Inquisitors would reward him highly for such an ability, though he didn't want to become an Inquisitor himself. They had a difficult job, rooting out the enemies of The Lord Ruler, and they seemed too serious because of it. Not that he had ever met one, but one does hear rumours...

"And now," Amon continued, "for a demonstration." Ashur switched tin back on, and concentrated on the stage. He had to see what Amon was about to do. A man with grey hair was pushed onto the stage. He wore a red shirt, with gold across the shoulders. "Please welcome 'Lightning Bolt' Zolt, the leader of the Triple Threat Triad, and one of the most notorious criminals in Republic City."

More booing broke out, so Ashur switched his tin off again. Zolt seemed to reply, but Ashur missed it, as his replying taunt was lost to the din of the crowd. Four more people were pushed onto the stage. One in orange, one in blue, and two in green. The last looked to be a child of his own age, not that it mattered to Ashur. He just found it amusing, since he could pretty much see the fear on the child's face at this distance.

"Zolt has amassed a fortune by extorting and abusing non-Benders, but his reign of terror is about to come to an end. Now, in the interests of fairness, we will give Zolt the chance to fight to keep his bending."

Ashur snorted. As if this was going to be a fair fight. If Amon did give Zolt the chance to escape, then the movement was clearly doomed to failure.

"You're going to regret doing that!" Zolt shouted, as fire shot out of his hands at Amon. It was slow, however, and Amon dodged it with ease. Blue lightning crackled in Zolt's hands and he jumped forward and thrust his hand out, firing the lightning at Amon. Ashur burnt bronze. It would be useful to know what lightning's tell-tale mental pulse felt like.

Amazingly, Amon dodged it. Ashur watched in a state of near shock as Amon grabbed the man's hand, throwing his lightning wide and then up into the ceiling. Everyone, Ashur included, was too busy watching to worry about the ceiling caving in.

Then came the moment of truth. Ashur kept bronze burning, as Amon stood behind Zolt. He put a hand on his neck, and his other hand on Zolt's head. The bolt of lightning shrunk slowly, its reach slowly becoming half the width of the warehouse, then a quarter, then becoming an orange flame, then a smaller orange flame, and then being extinguished for good.

Amon let go, and Zolt fell forward, as if unable to move his limbs. He pushed himself to his feet, and punched. Ashur felt no pulse within Zolt, and so was unsurprised when the fire didn't come. It shocked the crowd, however.

"What... What did you do to me?" Zolt asked, in a scared and defeated tone.

"Your Firebending is gone forever." Zolt was dragged back to the rest of the prisoners. "The era of Bending is over. A new era, of equality, has begun!" The next man was dragged to the front, and the same spectacle occurred.

As this was going on, Ashur spent the time analysing the pulse he had felt from Amon. It felt strange, as if it was familiar, a combination of some other pulses he had felt before. But then, the people here believed that so-called spirits gave them their Bending abilities. Perhaps this ability was simply a new Bending style, and Amon's claim that the spirits gave him the ability was tactful yet not entirely untrue, if they believed that Bending all came from the spirits. A necessary evil, one might say.

Ashur hoped so. It'd be amusing to see all these skaa duped into following a liar. Unless, of course, if it had no other use, perhaps it wasn't that bad in their opinion. After all, if it couldn't be used against them, why would they fear it?

He was distracted from his thoughts when someone rudely shoved past him in an effort to get closer to the stage. Ashur would've lashed out if the man hadn't continued on in a hurry. All he could see was a red scarf. Everyone was wearing too similar clothes to get a good look at them.

The last man went up to be equalised – well, boy – and Amon turned to him. The boy tried to talk Amon out of it. It was almost embarrassing to watch. Being without Bending might be annoying, but at least he was being allowed to live. It was better than any Skaa Misting got. He could at least face it with dignity.

There was an explosion to the side of the stage. Mist burst out of a side corridor, probably from the machine that made the mist previously on the stage. Screaming burst out. Ashur shut off his tin, cursing the people around him for being so loud and scared. The screaming died down as people found an exit and got away from him, but it took some time.

Ashur burnt tin, and was pleased to be able to see slightly through the mist that had been formed. Not as much as back home, for some reason, but it would do. There were some shapes in the back disappearing through a door, and he followed them. Hopefully it'd lead him to Amon.

He heard crackling electricity sounds from behind one door. There was a smashing of earth and a roaring of flame too. Burning bronze, he was surprised to only detect earth and flame, and no lightning. Still, that wasn't where Amon was. No chance that the leader would let himself get into a fight. The Avatar was almost certainly behind this, and clashing this early with his ultimate foe was probably not something he wanted to do.

He took a different door, which led onto a dark, empty street. He could hear a vehicle in the distance. He took a coin out from his pouch, tossing it onto the floor and leaping onto the warehouse roof. From here, he jumped to the next roof. It was quite easy, since they were all coated with metal. He followed the sound of the Satomobile making that noise quite easily, since it was late at night by this point.

He spent the next hour this way, as the specific vehicle in question made multiple detours, no doubt to confuse any potential followers. Unfortunately for them, they were being followed not by other cars or on foot, but by rooftop. They wouldn't be expecting the police this quickly yet, so they wouldn't be keeping an eye on the rooftops, with any luck.

The car stopped somewhere near the centre of the city, possibly because it would be easiest to plan from the centre and it would be the easiest place to disappear, or it could just be their safe house for the night, Ashur wasn't sure.

Amon stepped out of the vehicle with a pair of masked goons. The vehicle drove off at some speed, but Ashur was now no longer interested in it. He knew where Amon would be for the time being, so there was no point in delaying and losing him. He checked the vials that he kept on his belt. He missed his cloak at times like this, but it was too obvious a mark for people looking for him, so he left it in his room.

He downed a vial, pleased as he felt all eight of his basic metals replenish. He even kept stocked up on copper, which seemed useless to him here, because Mistborn were eternally paranoid. He didn't expect to run into other Allomancers here, since these people had never even heard of The Lord Ruler, but even so. Renegade Mistborn did exist, after all.

He considered taking out the single bead of atium that he had with him – his second and only other bead was back in his bedroom. The question was how dangerous he expected Amon to be towards someone who seemed to be following him. He didn't think that he would be killed for such an offence though. For some reason, this place seemed to be against killing, which just made them weaker in his opinion.

No, he wouldn't use the bead just yet. He'd wait and see. If Amon did attack him, then he could always swallow the bead during combat. With another look from the roof he was on, he jumped off.

* * *

Well, here is the first of many crossing points between Korra's plotline and Ashur's. At this point, they diverge quite strongly again. In another note, I find it strange that I've written the beginning and ending but not the middle. It's always the middle that's hardest...

Also, bronze here can detect Bending because Sanderson has hinted that it can detect other forms of Investment. It has difficulty with Feruchemy, but I would say that's because it isn't aligned with any single Shard.


	4. From One Outcast to Another

Ashur dropped down beside Amon's bodyguards, although he suspected Amon was the better fighter of the three. He projected a calming aura with his brass, and burnt zinc to enhance their sense of curiosity. Of course they'd be curious, a boy had just appeared next to them. The only thing was that it was logical that it would be easier to get answers from him if he was beaten up first.

He expected them to attack him, and he wasn't disappointed. The one on the left recovered quickly, throwing a strike out at his chest, aiming to wind him, as they took a step back to get a bit of distance. It was difficult to tell whether they were male or female under the baggy clothes, but like Mistborn, fighters here seemed to be gender indiscriminate.

He blocked with his left arm, grabbing them with his right. In a feat of strength that would not have surprised those who knew he was Mistborn, he swung that bodyguard into the other, who was coming at him from the side with a strike to his knee. An odd place to strike, but he supposed it made sense, since it would incapacitate him just as well. Unfortunate for his attacker that he could easily hear their footsteps on the pavement.

Ashur's swing did indeed hit its mark, and the bodyguards went down together, though one of them was immediately back on his feet, turning the fall into an easy roll. The other pushed himself up with a bit more effort, but didn't seem worse for wear either. They were tougher than normal skaa, though not as tough as Pewterarms. No-one was as tough as someone burning pewter.

He held his arms up, taking a step away from them. "I'm not here for a fight." He lowered them again when one of them took a strange weapon out, three metal balls attached by ropes that met in the middle. He could easily stop that, but he didn't want to be mistaken for a Metalbender, nor did he want to show off his powers. He looked to Amon. "I just want to ask some questions." He wished Amon wasn't wearing a mask. It was too hard to read people without being able to see their faces.

Amon raised his hand, and both of the bodyguards lowered their fists, though they did not relax. That was probably a wise thing to do, and they definitely wouldn't relax if they knew he was a Mistborn. "You fight well," he said, sizing Ashur up. "Better than one of your size would normally fight."

"I was taught well by my father," Ashur replied. Or at least, by some of his noble servants that he paid, so he was taught because of him. His father was far too busy to teach him personally. Still, it was close enough to not be a complete lie. "You fight better than I had expected as well. You were faster than I would have thought."

A compliment each. They were even. Despite his burning of tin and pewter, Ashur did not wish to fight against this man.

Amon stood there, watching him. It was impossible for Ashur to know what was going on behind that mask, but hopefully he had piqued Amon's interest.

After a long period of silence, Amon nodded. "Come inside then. I would assume you have questions about today's demonstration. I assume that can be the only reason you are here."

Ashur nodded. His bodyguards started to protest, but Amon waved their concerns away. "The boy is a good fighter, but not good enough to defeat me. In addition, there are more loyal to us inside. There is no cause for alarm."

Inside the safehouse were four more Equalists, masks off. It seemed they were relaxing, but they were immediately at attention when Amon entered the room. Amon nodded to them in a formal manner. "Bring our guest a drink," he said to one of them, as he gestured towards a chair for Ashur at a table.

Ashur sat on the table, looking around the room. He was curious to see what the room contained, not just because it was the first safehouse that he had been in. If a fight broke out, he needed to know where the furniture was, where the windows were, and so on.

Amon sat opposite him, and waved for them to have some privacy after Ashur received his drink. It was a cup of a local variety of tea that was favoured here. Much less bitter than those back home, probably due to the lack of ash. It could be poisoned. He was aware of such a risk. However, pewter helped protect him against poisoning, and he was already in over his head anyway.

"You're not concerned about me at all, are you?" He asked, after a small sip.

Amon chuckled a little. "Why should I be? I am surrounded by my guards, and you are just a boy. My most trusted lieutenant is going to be here soon as well. You are a boy quite skilled at fighting, that is true, but you are just a boy nonetheless. And I doubt you are a Bender. If you are, you are a foolish one that won't be a Bender for much longer. So tell me, why should I be concerned?"

"There's no reason," Ashur replied with a shrug. Even if a Mistborn was infinitely more powerful than this mere skaa man could imagine.

"Good. Now tell me, how did you manage to catch up with us here? Did you know where we would be before you came here? Or did you follow me somehow? Even the Metalbending Police would have a hard time reaching us that quickly."

"I was following on the rooftops," Ashur replied honestly. Honesty was the best policy as long as there was nothing to hide. "It was quite easy to keep up with you, because you double-backed so much. I just waited when you circled around buildings before you carried on."

Amon nodded. "I see. So what did you wish to ask me? I think I know. You wish to know how I managed to take away someone's Bending, don't you? As I said earlier, the spirits gave me such a power. I know not why they chose me, as there are many others who have lost as much as I have. Some have lost more. I only hope I prove worthy of it."

He sounded sincere, but it was difficult to take anything at - ha! - face value when his face was hidden. He also didn't accept the reason was that the 'spirits' gave him his power. It didn't fit anything he knew of this place's system. It had to be genetic. If not though, that meant that he could potentially learn it himself. "Which spirits would I have to find to request such a power?" Ashur asked, hating himself for accepting spirits as a reason.

"I am not sure what the name of the spirit who visited me was. I can barely remember the encounter as it is, because of how traumatic the experience was. You can, however, learn how to use chi-blocking, which has a similar effect but is temporary. The Equalists are happy to teach anyone who wishes to learn. Why, if I may ask, would a child such as yourself wish to learn such an ability? You carry yourself as someone who has never felt true loss or agony." Ashur had no doubt that Amon was scrutinising him right now behind that mask.

"I may not have lost my family, but they are dead to me here," Ashur said. That was pretty much true. Now came the lies. "The others in my family are all Benders. I was the youngest born, and I was also the least liked. My father taught me to fight, but only so that I could spar with my siblings and not embarrass him." A partial lie. He had no siblings to spar against, but the rest in that sentence was true. "I was considered worthless, without value, because I could not use Bending."

"You merely wish to get revenge upon Benders your family for treating you poorly?" Amon asked. "That is not a good enough reason for wanting such a power, is it? You sound as though you are a spoiled boy who has no idea how the world works."

Ashur scowled. "I don't want to get rid of Benders because of my family," true. "I want to get rid of Benders because the world can't work with them around. It doesn't work, with them around."

Amon pressed his hands together and steepled his fingers under his chin, elbows on the desk. "Explain your reasoning," he said. Behind the mask, there was interest.

"My family was just the starting point, it pushed me into thinking about it all. We're all different. That much is obvious. Someone who is not as intelligent as me will never be my equal. But the ability to Bend does not come in degrees of power, but you either have it or don't. This inherently makes it an unfair system. Your chi-blocking helps, but if you were being attacked by a Firebender from a distance, it would be useless."

Amon nodded. "Yes, that is an unfortunate limitation. One must be able to strike the opponent in such a way that your chi influences theirs. That cannot be done at a long range. There must be contact."

"But that's not all," Ashur said. "Power is generated by Lightningbenders and Firebenders. The Police is run by Metalbenders. Anyone else cannot hope to get a career in either field because they cannot even learn the abilities they need."

Again, Amon nodded. "It is certainly unnecessary. There are other ways to generate electricity than just abusing the principles of Bending. I have studied such things with a friend of mine. The Satomobile is an example of this. Depending on the model, they use coal and oil to generate heat."

"Mister Sato is quite lucky," Ashur continued on that theme. "He's probably the only person who has managed to become a big name here without being able to Bend. If he had worked with a Bender, I would have no doubt we'd know the Bender's name and not his. And then there's the name of this city."

"Oh?" Amon asked. "Republic City may not be perfect, but it is indeed a Republic. It has an elected council, so you cannot fault it for that."

"The Republic part is a lie because it is simply not representative. The council has five Benders on it. Two of them are Waterbenders. One of them is an Airbender. A single family of Airbenders has more say in this country than all the non-Benders here put together."

"Strictly speaking, that is not true," Amon replied. He seemed to be enjoying himself. "Theoretically, the non-Benders can speak to their representative on the council just as any Bender can. In practice, of course, this does not work as well as it should."

Ashur nodded. "The non-Benders are looked down on with disdain and therefore are ignored. But what about the people born here?"

"What do you mean?" Amon asked, curiously. It seemed he had stopped looking at Ashur as a 'mere' child, and was now speaking at him on a more equal level.

"This city has existed for over half a century," Ashur said. "Most of the people here were born here. Many of them feel an affinity for their country still, admittedly, but what about the people with mixed parentage? Who does a child of both water and fire talk to about their problems?"

"The representative of their father," Amon explained. "That is how it is enshrined in law. But, I agree with you, before you protest once more. It is not how things should be done. I am merely arguing against you to see what you are thinking on this matter. It was a test, you could say, though I was more curious than testing."

"So will you tell me the secret?" Ashur asked.

"There is no secret beyond what I have told you already," Amon replied. "But you may certainly join the Equalists to fight against the tyranny that you have seen in the system. We would be glad to have you in our ranks. Who knows? Perhaps the spirits will eventually reward your ardour with a similar gift."

Ashur was doubtful, but forced a smile onto his face. Hopefully it was genuine. "Thank you." He was glad to stop spouting those arguments. He was good at lying, there was little doubt at that. He had also manipulated Amon's emotions slightly with his mental metals to make him more trusting, less antagonistic.

The problem that he could see with the Equalists' argument was that they were arguing from a position of the abuse of such powers against those without power. But that was no different from real life itself. The strong always exploited the weak. He had no doubt that the corporations here did that either.

And the fact that they were taking away the powers of Benders ultimately meant that the Equalists were stronger than the Benders anyway. True, it was a single man removing those abilities, but it still meant that the organisation was acting upon a hypocrisy.

It was a similar position, interestingly enough to the supposed skaa rebellion. He had joined this place's equivalent. However, he had merely lied his way in for a different purpose. If he could learn this 'chi-blocking', then he could use it against them. If he could remove powers, all the better.

He'd never join the skaa rebellion back home anyway. It was a stupid idea for many reasons. The first was that the skaa both here and there were beneath the nobility anyway. Ultimately it all came down to Allomancy, and divine right.

The Lord Ruler was the Sliver of Infinity. He alone had touched the powers that were above mortal knowledge. These fools talked about spirits, but even if they did exist, they were nothing compared to The Lord Ruler. He had saved the world, and ruled it with an iron fist. He had never been defeated or bested, and could not be killed. In essence, he solved the idea of 'who should rule?' very easily.

Ashur looked at the time as he finished his tea. He had as much time as he needed to learn this ability, but at the same time, he had to try and find a way home. It was a choice between knowledge and expediency that was difficult to make.

He'd join the Equalists for now. Either the Benders would win, but would be weakened by the inevitable rebellion as Bender/non-Bender relations broke down and possibly succumb to another civil war easier, or the Equalists would win, and there would be no more dangerous Benders here, or there would simply be a perpetual state of war, with neither side winning.

He didn't really care which happened. The end result would be the same: Being annexed into The Final Empire (which would be much more Final when they took over this place. Then everyone would be in their proper place: all at the bottom).

In the end, he was on no-one's side here but his own.

* * *

I forgot to upload this one. Let's also count the parallels between Amon and the Equalists, and Kelsier and the Skaa Rebellion. This chapter is mostly because I really dislike how the Equalists are portrayed in Korra. They're shown to be Bending-hating, and that's about it. No acknowledgement that they're right in areas, nothing like that. In a way, it undermines the story for me.

Also, I hope that Ashur is, at least so far, believeable, possibly even likeable. I wouldn't want to throw a canon character into another world, not with this anyway. The canon characters of Mistborn have their own story to tell, and while they would fit in this world, the fact is that there's no development to be had with them, at least no new developments. They are, after all, fully explored in the works, with some exceptions.


	5. Chi-Blocking

Chi-blocking was proving to be an immensely annoying art to master for Ashur.

It wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn't the only one here who was unable to even manage to us it in the slightest. True, the principles could still be applied, even without the actual chi-blocking, and attacking pressure points like that was a good idea, but it annoyed him to no end that he couldn't even attempt to cut off someone's Bending like this.

It wasn't as if they were practising on Benders, though. It was simply impractical to kidnap Benders for each of the cells that were teaching Equalists the art. But it was still possible to feel another person's chi as it attacked your body.

It wasn't possible for Ashur to detect such a thing, however. He was starting to believe, in a similar manner to how he had not found an Allomancer here yet, that it was an art that only people from this place could learn. Perhaps it was actually another form of Bending, and that all people who could not Bend an element were actually Chibenders that were not aware that what they did was special as well.

Personally ,Ashur found it amusing that they would hate Benders so much when they could do such a spectacular thing themselves, even if it wasn't as innately destructive as the four elements were.

He grunted with frustration as he took off his Equalist mask. He hated the thing. It made him feel enclosed, and restricted his vision. He threw it on the floor and left it there. It wasn't as though he needed to keep his identity hidden here, after all.

All-in all, it was a boring two weeks. He hadn't become any closer to discovering how Amon used his gift, and the Equalist movement wasn't doing much right now either. It was obvious why not; they didn't want to tilt the hand of those in power too much as of yet. One of the Councilmen was making a noise about them, however.

The Avatar was apparently trying to hunt them down with him, or rather she had been tricked and taunted into hunting them down with him. She was now a part of some task force that he had put together to hunt Amon down. It was a large publicity stunt, that much was obvious, but at the same time it seemed to be having some effect.

It was a good thing that the Equalists were designed to work in cells, all-in-all. It meant that whenever one of their places was discovered, the rest weren't at risk from someone telling the police the secrets that they knew, because they didn't know any.

Ashur heard, through his tin-enhanced ears, the sound of something like a Satomobile drive up outside. He looked up, and through an open window he saw a metallic van hauling up. No doubt it was somewhere to store them and forget about them after they were captured.

He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Since he was the only one able to do so at the moment, he got their attention quite quickly. He pointed up, at the window, where a large rubber tube seemed to be being dropped in.

"...Really?" He asked, in disbelief. Were they trying to drown them all out? He sighed as panic set into the room, and the chi-blockers ran around like headless komodo chickens. "Republic City's finest, aren't you?" he muttered to himself as his feet started to get damp as water started to pour in.

He looked over to the door, which someone was trying to undo without success. He sighed as he realised that, in their haste, they were pulling a door that had to be pushed. "Save me from idiots." He walked forwards and kicked the door open in a pewter-enhanced swing of his foot. "Now shall we escape in a smart manner?" He asked the person who was supposed to be in charge sarcastically. He'd heard that the Amon's Lieutenant was meant to be running this group, which was why he had joined it. Sadly it was just a rumour.

He waited a short while until he could leave without being pushed around. There was only one exit from this building, since it was underground, and when he exited it, he found himself surrounded by Benders of every type. There was also the Avatar there, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else and yet looking determined at the same time.

"Eight on one hardly sounds fair," Ashur said. He took that chance to hit one of the Earthbenders with a palm-strike to the head, sending him flying back. With the momentum, he elbowed the Waterbender next to him in the ribs and hooked his foot around the man's leg, tripping him. Two down, just another six before he could flee. It didn't help that Korra was one of them.

"Make it easy on yourself," Korra suggested, in a kind but hard voice. "Attacking Benders like this isn't helping your cause, kid."

Ashur shrugged. He didn't mind being called kid so much when it came from someone his own age. Korra was probably the only person on his power level here anyway. "Perhaps. Let's see which ideal is stronger, shall we?" He reviewed his options. He could drop a coin and push himself off onto the rooftops, or he could pull himself towards the police van, but that would reveal his own powers. He definitely didn't want to do that. What other choice did he have?

He could fight his way through the other six, but Ashur didn't think he'd be able to do that safely. No, make that seven, he corrected, as the man he had thrown across the street was back up, and advancing. The one by his feet would probably be up soon as well.

The other option was one he really didn't want to use. Atium was definitely a last resort, but at least it wouldn't be the only time he could pull this trick. It wouldn't be obvious, and it would make him feared, with any luck. It would also attract Amon's attention, to beat them all, including the Avatar, all on his own. That was his real goal tonight.

His hand went to his belt pouch, and he took out the bead of atium. He also took out a sweet that he had purchased a week ago for this very purpose. Keeping an eye on them all, he made a great show of undoing the wrapper and putting the sweet into his mouth. While he did this misdirection, he also swallowed the atium bead.

Power coursed through him, though he knew it would only last a minute. Green atium shadows erupted from all present excluding himself, showing him the immutable future, at least immutable to those without atium.

He took a step forward and brought his arm up to block an attack from the man on his right before it had completed being thrown. He grabbed the man's arm and span him around, using himself as the axis of rotation. He let go and threw the man into the one that had gotten back up earlier.

A strange pulse of green light shot from another Firebender's hand, and Ashur had already pushed that man's arm up at one of his companions, and the fire erupted at a completely unintended target, causing that man to drop or face being burnt. Ashur span around and struck that man in the chest, kicking the Firebender in the chest at the same time. Four left.

Ashur raised his arm up in a taunting pose, suggesting he was ready for the rest and hadn't even broken a sweat against the trained Benders. In truth, he hadn't, thanks to pewter. His arms rested in the defensive and quick form that was taught to him back home by his father's tutors. Being a Mistborn was about attacking, not defending. A defensive Mistborn was a dead Mistborn.

As such, he charged forward, surprising Korra, his target. She brought her hand up and earth shot out from under Ashur's foot to destabilise him and make him fall, but he was ready. A green slab preceded that, and instead of tripping, he used the extra height granted to him to jump at Korra. His foot collided with her right arm at a pressure point, and her arm went numb.

"Huh. Guess you're an amateur," she said, smiling a little as she realised that Ashur hadn't used any chi-blocking against her.

"I could say the same to you," Ashur replied as he blocked the fire-engulfed right fist that she levelled at him and struck her arm with ease thanks to his temporal metal. He levelled a punch at her knee and she cried out as she suddenly hit the ground.

"Does anyone else want to try and take me?" Ashur asked the three others standing around. Without a glance between them, they charged him simultaneously. That was the smart move. It was probably their arrogance and wish not to be caught in an elemental crossfire that stopped them before.

The ground rose up around him, trying to trap his feet within the earth. Ashur leapt forward to avoid it, headbutting a Waterbender. He pulled the attack a bit, since Amon was strangely against killing, but that Waterbender would definitely need healing for a while before he would be safe to let on the streets again.

The other two were simple enough to knock out as well. Atium made it simple, anyway. Atium was the perfect tool for attack and defence, for it let you know where people were attacking before they would even make the attack, and it let you know where they were planning to defend when your unseen future self made a strike. All you had to do then was emulate that future self, and then switch targets slightly afterwards.

He examined his knuckles afterwards. They were bruised, and even bleeding in places, despite the fact that he didn't use them that much. It was probably due to his earlier training, compounding the all-out attacks just now. Pewter did tend to let you go past your limits without realising it. He'd heard stories of some savants killing themselves that way. "I need gloves," he muttered to himself.

"How did you do that?" the Avatar asked, pushing herself to her feet. Her arms were still mostly unusable, judging from how much effort she was putting into keeping them up and not letting them go limp, but all of her Bending was still within her reach.

"Benders rely too much on their elements," Ashur said, spinning another lie with ease. In truth, Mistborn relied too much on their metals just as much. "They don't know how to fight when they outnumber without hurting their allies. They held back as well, because I'm 'just' a non-Bender. Sheer arrogance."

"You're too young to know how to fight like that," Korra said, watching him warily.

"Evidently not," Ashur replied with a smile. He could feel his atium winking out slowly, as the shadows became closer and closer to Korra's body before disappearing. His advantage was gone, but what he had needed it for was done. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go home."

"You're not getting through me!" Korra declared, her arms and legs fully restored to their proper potential and power.

"You'll pose me more of a threat than these fools, I'll admit," Ashur said with a shrug. "I should probably kill you, as a matter of fact. Before you inconvenience me any further." He felt the weight of his coins, deadly weapons in his hands, by his waist.

"I'd like to see you try it," Korra said, bringing her hands up. If she had any idea what he was capable of at his full power, she wouldn't be so belligerent. "You or your master."

Ashur hesitated. Killing the Avatar off would remove the single most potent individual in this place, at least for a while, if the talk here about the Avatar 'Cycle' was to be believed. At the same time, it would probably shock the world enough to destabilise it enough for the Equalists to take over. He would have to risk revealing his steelpushing too, if there were any witnesses that he didn't see. While the two of them were the only ones on the street, there could be any number of people watching from the buildings that he could not anticipate.

In addition to that, Amon didn't want her dead, or even depowered. He didn't want to make a martyr of the Avatar. At this point, Ashur could see why. Alive, she was just one girl, if a stronger one than normal. Dead, she was a potent symbol, one which the world would happily rally behind, telling themselves it was the excuse needed.

The Avatar's death would be a catalyst for many important changes, but they were ones that Ashur could not forsee at this time. It was a difficult choice, but not one that he had to make now. He had time. The thought occurred to him that the loss of the Avatar now would be nowhere near as effective as the loss of the Avatar at a critical point. Overall, it was best to keep her breathing, for the time being at least.

Destabilising her was the best idea for now. Sow the seeds of doubt if he can, to raise suspicion in her. Remove the symbol from her, and the world wouldn't follow her. Ashur realised at this point that this was what Amon was doing - Korra was working with the oppressors, losing the respect of non-Benders, but she was also clashing publicly with the Bender-led councilmen, losing the trust of Benders as well as they couldn't be sure who she would support when push came to shove.

"But frankly neither of us really want to fight." He said instead, as he burnt brass and zinc in tandem. _Fear_. That was the emotion he needed to capitalise on right now. She was afraid, or should be at any rate. All warriors had an amount of fear in them. It was what drove your reactions, and helped you fight better.

His hand went to his belt again, and he unhooked a smoke bomb. A useful device, one that he would be more than glad to take back home. He'd tried taking one apart, finding how they worked to be fascinating, but all he'd managed to do was set it off accidentally. The Equalists certainly had some amazing technology. He made a note to track down their engineers and ask some questions.

"Don't you dare run away," Korra said. "This isn't the way to help non-Benders. I'm your Avatar too," she said, her voice trying to get him to listen. The fear that Ashur had kindled made it waver slightly though, and it lost some of its effect.

Not that it was going to affect him anyway, since she was trying to convince him under false pretences on his part. He didn't care about the Equalist movement itself, rather he cared for the chaos that it sowed in its wake. Still, it didn't hurt to stir it up a bit more either.

"Do you trust your precious leader?" Ashur asked her.

"What?" Korra was clearly confused, not only at the change of track, but at what he had said too.

"Councilman Tarlokk. Do you trust him?"

"As far as I can throw him. Without Bending," Korra added. "And he's not our leader."

"Could have fooled me, with how the rest of the council follows him like koala sheep after a shepard. Makes you wonder how many of the laws passed are actually his, really..."

Korra bit her lip, eyeing him warily still. "Tarlokk is just one man. Not everyone agrees with what he says. I... I admit that I don't like him, and that most of what he says is stupid, but I can't do anything about it."

"You're the Avatar," Ashur asked, playing the naïve native role up as much as he could. "They'd have to listen to you if you said something."

"You'd think that," Korra muttered, looking down.

That was the opportunity Ashur was looking for. "I'm glad you can't Airbend," Ashur said, before throwing the smoke bomb between them. He ran off before the smoke reached him, down the road. He didn't dare steelpush his way out, for fear of someone else watching. It was a strong possibility, with all the noise caused by them here.

All in all, chi-blocking seemed to be a dead-end for him.

* * *

Not too much to say here, other than I find my mind strange in that it already has characters for a sequel, but barely any plot. Sigh. Also, canon characters are somewhat the bane of me, since they are already established. As such, if any of them are out of character, I apologise, and now you know why I don't write too much with them.


	6. The Equalist Benefactor

The man in charge of the technical end of the Equalists was, to Ashur's great surprise, a Mister Hiroshi Sato. The same man, in fact, who developed the Satomobile, and owner of Future Industries, one of the two most powerful corporations in Republic City. He was responsible for so many of the changes to the world here that it was amazing that it had all come from one man.

But why did Hiroshi Sato support the Equalists? It made no sense. Apparently he was descended from some of the Fire Nation Colonists, who were placed here during the war in order to defend the area and help the war effort. Ashur doubted that such a warlike nation would place non-Benders here, but apparently he and his daughter were not Benders, and neither were his parents. His wife, also not a Bender, had passed away some time ago, but she was from a Bending family, it seemed. The black sheep for not having the family skill, as it were.

What Ashur didn't understand about this was that the Sato family were extremely, extremely wealthy. He had started with nothing, apparently, and worked his way straight to the top, to become second to none with regards to technological developments. In Ashur's experience, those at the top did not like change. Hiroshi Sato was risking everything by throwing in with the Equalists, especially if he was discovered.

His aid was not known by many in the Equalists, but Ashur had lucked out. When asking around about who developed the smoke grenades, he had eventually stumbled upon the Lieutenant. They had spoken for some time, and struck up a minor friendship that Ashur plied almost all of his remaining mental metals into strengthening (though not all of theme. He would need some for Hiroshi Sato, of course). Eventually he was asked to talk to Mister Sato on behalf of the Equalists regarding his new weaponry.

It had been about a week since the attack on the cell he was learning the principles of chi-blocking in, even if he couldn't learn the ability itself, and since then, Pro-Bending fever had struck the city in a sudden epidemic. He had heard the Lieutenant mutter about people idolising thugs on no small number of occasions because of this as well. Apparently Amon had a plan for the final of the championship though, which kept him from attacking the place on his own.

Ashur made his way to the Sato mansion without particularly hiding his face. True, it was illegal to be a member of the Equalists, but the only ones who know about that were his fellow Equalists, and the task force that had tried to capture him. He doubted that anyone had gotten a good look at him in the dark of the night, and if so, what of it? There were thousands of black-haired teenagers of his height in the city. It would be impossible to take him to task for it.

The mansion was easy enough to get into – He was expected, after all. He nodded to the guards, gave his name as Ashur, and told them of his business there. He couldn't, obviously, say 'Equalist negotiator', or anything like that, so instead they had agreed on the code of 'metallurgist'. It was close enough to the truth for Ashur, after all. He had surprised the Lieutenant with his knowledge of metals, something that amused the man no end as hobbies went.

He tried not to be suitably awed by the mansion as he walked through it to the study where Hiroshi Sato waited for him. Admittedly, it wasn't as grand as the Keeps in Luthadel, but his own back home in Mantiz was not impressive compared to those. It was a long way from Mantiz to Luthadel, and a keep on the borders was just too expensive with too few people to impress. Thankfully there was no-one to be amused at his reactions. The time was chosen because his daughter was out, and he had kept his guards from the inside of the mansion for the day.

What mostly amazed him here were the different models of old Satomobiles that were only display here. It was not so much the cars themselves that he was interested in, but rather the little placard which explained a little about why they were made, how different they were from each other, or how they worked. He blamed his father's influence.

He knocked on the man's study politely, used to meeting moderately high society thanks to his own upbringing. True, the man was not as important as the nobles of the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation, but he was more important in a social sense and by the fact that he was _here._ He was also below the Councilmen technically, but not to an Equalist.

"Enter!" Hiroshi's voice called through, and Ashur obliged.

Ashur entered the room, closing the door behind him. "Good morning, Mister Sato."

Hiroshi looked up at him. He smiled a little, but seemed a little bemused at the same time. "I must admit, I was expecting someone older to negotiate on behalf of your company."

"I was surprised myself when I was asked to come here," Ashur said, completely truthful. "But I've wanted to meet you ever since I saw my first Satomobile."

Hiroshi laughed. "You'd be surprised how often I hear that. I've no shortage of people wanting to meet their idol."

"If I'm completely honest, it's not you that I'm interested in," Ashur admitted.

"That's a little cruel, to build a man's ego up and then dash it like that."

"It's your inventions. Since I came here, I've wanted to find out how they work, and how you developed them. I'm interested in science myself; my father is a metallurgist as well. I haven't had too many chances to try and discover things myself though, sadly. So, in a roundabout way, I am interested in meeting you," Ashur said. No, Hiroshi Sato the person was boring. Hiroshi Sato, the technological genius was what mattered. "Would I be able to see your laboratory, at all?"

The Equalist's benefactor nodded. "I had planned to take your company's representative there myself anyway. I have some new developments that you will be most interested in, I think. You and the company."

Ashur could hardly contain his excitement as Hiroshi Sato led him to the place where his mental dreams were made into reality. The laboratory where he worked on his own projects was smaller than his father's, but Hiroshi had the benefit of not needing a place for the skaa to be hung up by their arms. Hiroshi also kept his tightly locked up.

The room smelled of burnt metal. To Ashur's nose, he could smell tin and iron and copper quite easily, some of it sadly rusted. There was a working forge inside for one person's use, and boxes upon boxes of wires and other strange components that Ashur was completely ignorant of. On each of the four walls were whiteboards, with incomprehensible formulae written across three of them, and blue paper hanging from the fourth.

"This is where you do all your work?" Ashur asked him.

Hiroshi nodded. "I create the blueprints and prototypes here, then send them to my factory to be mass produced. It's a nice feeling, to be able to work on your own despite being the head of a large company. It's much more personal, I find."

Ashur nodded as he picked up a pair of metal rods by the side. "The original electrified kali sticks?" He asked Hiroshi, who nodded. The Lieutenant used a pair of these, connected to a backpack to generate electricity through them. "It's a shame that they need the backpack, really," he continued. "I have thought about using a pair myself, but I find them so unwieldy with the wires."

"Ah," Hiroshi smiled. "I have away around that, after many weeks of research and theorising. Come over here," he said, waving Ashur over to a desk. A gold/brown glove sat on it, with strange wires feeding through the materials.

"Are these what I think they are?" Ashur asked, touching them carefully.

"Yes, these are electrified gloves," Hiroshi replied. "We can use them in conjuction with the sticks so the wires are no longer needed, because the gloves will connect to the backpack. Alternatively, we use the gloves themselves as weapons. They can store a strong, disabling charge for perhaps four hours after being electrified. The wearer activates them with a series of finger movements."

Ashur nodded. "I need a pair of these," he muttered, thinking about how powerful he would be in a fight if any hit, even a glancing one, would be backed by both his superhuman strength and this electrical discharge. "How long before we get them?"

"We should have the company fully outfitted by the championship Pro-Bending match in two weeks," Hiroshi replied, disgust reaching his voice when he mentioned the match.

"What's wrong?" Ashur asked, turning to his mental metals once again in order to wheedle out more information. This sort of thing was gold when it came to manipulating people.

"My daughter is dating a Pro-Bender," Hiroshi replied. "And I have to give it my blessing. It disgusts me. A Firebender as well, the worst kind!"

"Why do you hate them so?" Ashur asked. "In fact, why would someone like you push for change at all? I must imagine that you're pretty comfortable with your position in the world, head of Future Industries and all that."

Hiroshi sighed. "My wife was murdered by a Firebender that broke into our home one night. That was, I think, the final straw. But in truth, it goes back further than that, much further. I have been plagued by Benders at every turn of my life. My wife's family refused to accept us, because we were without Bending. Even though she herself was not a Bender, they would not let her marry someone who was not.  
"That's all?" Ashur asked, disappointed. It couldn't be just because of his wife and her family. There had to be other reasons.

"I was not allowed to apply to become a Councilman either," Hiroshi said. "I am looked down upon by them because of random chance. I do not want to be a Bender myself, but I cannot stand being hated for being something I am not. I am despised by the ruling elite, for I am richer than they are through my mind than they are through their Bending and their families. I finance the company because Benders like that have to be taken down!"

"I was not even granted the loan that I needed – All the companies are owned by Bending-rich elite families. And look what I've done with the money I eventually managed to obtain! They could have been repaid a thousandfold! The gangs were the only ones who would even look my way, and even then I had to deal with arrogant Benders at every turn. It was because of that cursed deal that my wife..."

He took a few seconds to calm down and realise he was sweating, and breathing heavily. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and mopped his brow. "I apologise," he said. "I should not have lost my temper."

"I understand," Ashur said. True, there was no-one that important to him in his life, but he could certainly understand the frustration of being looked down upon. It took him a while to remember that Hiroshi was skaa. It was the semi-noble aspect he had cultivated, it threw him off.

He took another looked around the laboratory. "So what did you wish to show the company?" He asked.

Hiroshi brightened immensely at that question. "Over here," he said, taking down one of the blueprints and unfurling it across a table. "My greatest creation."

On the table before Ashur was some kind of technical diagram of a strange device. It was in the shape of a human, but one entirely encased in metal and much, much taller than them. Also shown were magnets and other devices used to defeat Benders. A retractable claw was shown, and there was an in-depth diagram of the place where the human sat, in the 'head'.

"Why is that useful?" Ashur asked, not seeing the genius. "Surely the first Metalbender that comes along will destroy them easily."

"Ah, but that is why they are made from pure platinum," Hiroshi said, smiling. "Platinum is the easiest metal that I can refine and keep pure, as it is difficult for it to rust. Metalbenders cannot bend pure metals."

"Really?" Ashur said, filing that very useful bit of information for future use. "I can imagine they don't like letting people know that. But surely that will be expensive? Platinum hardly comes cheap."

Hiroshi nodded. "Admittedly, that is the major flaw with the design. I am, however, willing to put my own money towards it, and subsidise each that is bought, because I think they will be so useful."

"If that's true, then I'm sure we can come to some agreement," Ashur nodded. "If you draw up a contract for the company, then I will take it back for our CEO to have a look at. In the mean time, regarding the electrified gloves I believe, I have this missive." He took a scroll out of his pocket, designed to be easily concealable in his clothing.

Hiroshi took the scroll and looked through it. "Hrm," he said, sounding displeased. "This is less than I would like, I admit."

"Money isn't an issue with you," Ashur said, having been given instructions to try and keep the cost down as much as possible, but give 10% leeway in Hiroshi's favour. But that was giving up. Using brass, he downplayed Hiroshi's annoyance with the deal, and using zinc he stoked up the feelings of sadness and remorse that he cultivated over his wife. "You finance the company anyway," he added.

"Not alone. There are many other persons of wealth who contribute," Hiroshi corrected as he reread the deal, making sure that everything was in place. He didn't become rich by not reading contracts properly.

"The spreading of your influence in the company is surely not a bad thing?" Ashur suggested, turning the deviousness up. "The more that you contribute out of your personal funds, the easier time you will have suggesting the more... controversial ideas. It would be a shame for the company to enact softer policies that are not what you want, after all. Your influence would help us become more... guided."

After a short while, Hiroshi nodded. "Perhaps you are right. And if this all goes correctly, then my fortune won't matter. I will agree to the terms provided, but with the caveat that I have the capability to raise the prices by 5% if required."

Ashur nodded with a smile. This was actually fun. "I'm sure that will be perfectly fine with the company. Thank you." He bowed politely, able to stomach it due to the business and the fact that Hiroshi was at least somewhat higher class.

"Allow me to show you out not," Hiroshi said formally, now that the deal was concluded.

Ashur shook his head, holding his palms up to stop him. "No, please. You have a great many exhibits of your work within your mansion. I hope you would not think it rude of me if I requested to take the scenic route out?"

Hiroshi smiled, for what man does not appreciate being told that his work is good? "Of course. If anyone asks, direct them to my office."

Ashur went to the door, but stopped. "May I request one other favour from you?"

"That depends on the favour," Hiroshi replied, stern and business like again.

Ashur took one of Hiroshi's sheets of paper and a pencil and started writing down. "I wish to perform my own studies, for the good of the company. The problem is that I do not have a way of obtaining good quality metals."

While it wasn't too bad so far, only 1% off so far or thereabouts, the compound effect would be a pain. He mostly got away with it, since he usually only burnt tin. Pewter was notorious for being a difficult compound and being dangerous to use a lot, so he burnt that only when it was completely necessary. Steel he didn't use much either, nor iron.

Ashur passed Hiroshi the list, and he looked over it. "The percentages must be exact," he continued. "I'm afraid that I had to scour the shops for these materials before, and it wasn't particularly successful. They just weren't professional enough, even if they were useable."

"I'll see what I can do," Hiroshi nodded. Ashur smiled. He really was a reasonable man.

Indeed, the myriad of motors, vehicles and other mechanical paraphernalia that dotted the mansion was of great interest to Ashur. He may not have understood how it worked now, but he was determined to find out. Already he was wondering how he could benefit from such ideas. None of what was displayed was weaponised, of course, but still.

An engine could easily approximate a Coinshot, for instance. Fuel was placed into the engine, according to the explanations, combustion occurred, and motion was achieved by the rotation of a motor. If a miniature explosion could be achieved in an enclosed space, than the force could be channelled in a specific direction – Such as firing coins: Any blockage would be shot out of the space at high velocity. A Coinshot could do some interesting things with the added force behind it. Alternatively, one could possibly power a motor with iron and steel by alternate pushing and pulling.

But that wasn't something to think about right now. As interesting an idea it was, he had neither the capability to reproduce such an effect, nor the miniature engine it would require. Perhaps it was an idea for Hiroshi when he had finished with his mechanical suits of armour.

Still, in the meantime he had a chance. This land had some strange sciences, some of which were, he had to admit, more advanced than The Final Empire's own. If he was going to be of any use here, it was probably a good idea for him to study up on it. He liked discovering new things, thanks to his father's influence. Hiroshi seemed to like him, it seemed because he had a genuine interest. And, of course, thanks to a liberal application of emotional Allomancy. Perhaps he could be tutored by the most famous engineer in this land. It couldn't hurt to ask.

* * *

Sato lost his wife. I understand that it would hurt to lose someone close to you like that. But really, he goes on to swear vengeance against all Benders for the action of a single one? He's nowhere near psychopathic enough for that, though he does become insane as the series goes on, I'll grant you. Just seems to be a recurring theme here, with disproportionate retribution on all sides, all with little justification. I hope to bring a little of that to the series - Not just for the Equalists, but for Tarrlok too. We're at around Episode 4, incidentally. The little timeskips I'm adding are pretty much abitrary, since LoK doesn't say how much time passes, but it must be more than is seen.

Also, while I'm at it, to the anonymous Igor (can't read that without hearing 'Yeth Mathter?'), the nobles of The Final Empire are, by and large, hypocrites and unable to see their own faults. The society itself encourages that, with all the power plays and the slavery/indentured worker system of the skaa. Any gazing at yourself like that is an admittance of weakness, which won't hesitate to be exploited. In a way, it's why gold is a 'useless' metal.


	7. Training With The Lieutenant

Admittedly, it didn't hurt to ask, although Ashur wished that the outcome was more to his liking. Perhaps it was a bit too much to try and jump straight into an apprenticeship with Hiroshi Sato, but still, he managed to get work dealing with the new Equalist weaponry, so that was something. He'd have to try again at a later date, though perhaps he'd already ruined it by being too eager...

He shook his head. He couldn't worry about that sort of thing now. He was too busy playing with the newest toy of Future Industries' underground division in one of the Equalist safe houses that doubled as a training location. It was further out, in the slums on the outskirts of Republic City, so they didn't have to worry about the police or Tarrlok's Bending force showing up and trying to arrest them.

His favourite of their inventions were perhaps the electrified gauntlets. They were perfect not just for the non-Bender population, who could use them for short-term paralysis and probably even killing their enemies if they took out the limiters, but also for Mistborn. Ashur's fists were already lethal weapons when he burnt pewter – these gloves just added to the pain he could cause.

He couldn't even be worried about the Equalists using these as weapons against him or other Mistborn, because there was so much metal inside them. It would be far too easy for him to defeat someone wearing these. While most people were taller than him in the Equalists, that didn't mean that he couldn't disrupt them or use their metal against them. Iron and steel only let you push and pull, but you could do a surprising amount with that if you were creative.

Ashur flexed his fingers, feeling the inside of the gloves. They were also made of quite comfortable material. Hiroshi certainly didn't skimp on his weapons to overthrow the government, it seemed. The only problem with them was that he wasn't sure whether or not they would be of use against Firebenders who could also manipulate Lightning. They might do more harm than good there.

The 'mecha tanks' that he had developed though were of another story entirely. Platinum was a soft metal, surprisingly useless for a metal that was worth so much. The main benefit that the tanks had over other metals was that they were almost impossible to Metalbend. For that, they sacrificed durability.

However, considering how thick the platinum was, that was like saying that a Mistborn sacrificed skill with a specific metal compared to a Misting – It was true, but largely irrelevant. Ashur had tried to strike the metal when he heard it was weak. All he ended up with was a set of bloody knuckles and a print on the metal. It taught him two things: Firstly, someone would need a weapon of some kind to break through, and secondly he would regret that thoughtless move for quite a while.

They were also heavier than he was by quite a wide margin. An Allomancer who pushed or pulled one would find themselves moved around instead – Not necessarily a bad thing, depending on the sort of battle one wished to conduct, but still not the ideal outcome.

The cockpits were the place to strike, it seemed. The weakest points on the tanks were the glass that made up the 'eyes' of the machine, so the pilots could see out of them. It would be easy enough to assassinate them and take the entire tank out of commission. So overall, while these developments were dangerous, they were nothing that couldn't be handled.

He watched the lightning arc over both of his hands. It was a strange, pleasant sensation. The crackling electricity made the hairs on his body stand on end, and he felt oddly powerful with the tame lightning.

"I wonder if this is what Lightningbenders feel like," he muttered to himself.

"What you've got there is a poor man's imitation," a voice said from behind him. "I don't like these things. We don't need to pretend to be something we're not."

"Hello, Lieutenant," Ashur said, smiling a little as he turned around to greet his superior. "I notice you have a pair on your hands, even if you dislike them."

the Lieutenant scowled. "They're too useful not to use," he replied. "Much easier than having wires running around me."

Ashur sighed, putting a hand to his face. His legs then collapsed.

"You should probably turn those off first," the Lieutenant said helpfully.

"Noted," Ashur grimaced as he tried to push himself up off the floor. He'd felt more pain than he'd expected, thanks to his current habit of almost constantly burning tin. He overheard so much that could be used as blackmail material this way, so he wasn't going to stop. The pewter he burnt less regularly stopped him from feeling the effects too much, but he made a note to himself to stop burning it as much when alone. It wasn't worth the risk of becoming a savant.

The Lieutenant turned to the rest of the assembled testers. "As Ashur has just helpfully demonstrated, even when the voltage is low, being struck by one of these gloves will send your body numb. Remember to turn them off!"

"Sir!" the assembled Equalists replied, aside from Ashur, who finally managed to stand up.

"So to what do we owe the pleasure?" Ashur asked the man.

"I have your orders for the next week," the Lieutenant replied. "We should have enough by the Pro-Bending tournament's finals to outfit enough people. The ten of you assembled here will be teaching another ten each how to use these."

Ashur nodded. "Amon's got something big planned for the match then." He didn't need to ask, it was obvious. "He can't let such a thing go ahead when it's the opposite of his aims."

"Honestly, I'm surprised they're going through with it at all," the Lieutenant replied. "But I suppose that's the arrogance of Benders for you."

"I suppose they can't give in to the pressure we're putting on them without them being seen as weak. It's more politics. That's what Amon's trying to engage them in. It's a popularity contest with Republic City as the prize." Ashur had seen that sort of thing often enough before with the nobility back home. The stronger houses would get the contracts, which would make them stronger still. It was important to get in on it as soon as possible.

"No," the Lieutenant shook his head, surprising Ashur. "After this, we won't be a mere faction trying to get support. It will be a full-fledged civil war, with both sides fighting wherever possible. Before, we were barely tolerated and used by Councilman Tarlokk as an excuse to improve his hold over the city. Afterwards, we will be an enemy."

"Shame we can't get rid of Tarlokk," Ashur commented. He'd offered to assassinate him before, but was turned down. It had... surprised Amon when he had done so. "But I guess if he's helping us this much..."

"It's kind of amusing, to see a Bender help our cause," the Lieutenant smiled beneath his mask. "But then, as I said, they are arrogant."

"So are you here to tell us what the plan is for the actual event, or...?" Ashur asked.

"You won't find out until the night of the final," the Lieutenant replied.

Ashur sighed. "I thought you would say that. No need for us to know and potentially brag about our important mission." He received a nod in response. "So you're just here to tell us we're to teach other Equalists?" Another nod of confirmation. "Is that all?"

The Lieutenant thought about it, then shook his head. "No, I also wished to see the mecha-tanks that our benefactor has so kindly created for us. I don't plan on driving one myself, but they do sound magnificent."

"Lieutenant," Ashur said, since they'd explored that conversation track as far as it would go, it seemed. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you join the Equalists?" He plied more emotional metals into it. He would be the first to admit he was being a bit reckless with them, but the people here had no idea about emotional Allomancy, so they didn't know what he could do with it.

He seemed to consider it for a while, but eventually the Lieutenant relented. "Do you know of Yakone? He was before your time. Before you were born, certainly. People don't like talking about him. It's understandable, but at the same time, it's wrong. Men like him shouldn't be forgotten. Perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess if Benders remembered what happened to those who abuse their power. Maybe if the Avatar was wiser, she would be able to do what Amon is trying to do."

Ashur shook his head. "I must admit, I've never heard of him."

"Yakone was a Waterbender of a rare breed. Just like Firebending and Earthbending have Lightning and Metal as specialisations, Waterbenders of sufficient power can bend the blood of others during a full moon. Or at least, usually during a full moon. Yakone could do it without the power boost that the moon granted."

Ashur grimaced. "That sounds like a terrifying ability. How could anyone defend themselves against it?" Perhaps copperclouding would protect him, like it protected him against emotional Allomancy? It was worth a shot. Hopefully he'd never have to find out. Copper was a mental metal. It would depend on how Bloodbending worked. He wasn't too hopeful, considering copper protected the mind, and Bloodbending did not affect it.

"They couldn't," his superior continued. "Yakone used his ability to take over the criminal underworld, since no-one could fight him. He could not be taken to jail though, for anyone who captured him was instantly vulnerable to his abilities. He didn't even need to move to use it.

"So what happened to him then?" Ashur asked.

"The Avatar was the only one able to block out Yakone's Bloodbending, somehow. He took away Yakone's ability to Bend, rendering him harmless. He was exiled, and never returned."

"Exile, for someone like that?" Ashur said, in disbelief. "Not even imprisonment?" The Avatar could block Bloodbending. Something to look into, just in case. After all, there would probably be a few full moons for him to experience between now and whenever he left. A good third of their enemies would be Waterbenders, so if they co-ordinated their attacks with the full moon...

"Yes," the Lieutenant nodded, "the belief was that without his powers, he wouldn't be able to do any more harm. The Avatar... He was a forgiving man, by all accounts."

"So what does that have to do with you being an Equalist?" Ashur asked, not seeing the connection.

"Amon has the same ability as the Avatar has – had, rather. He can remove Bending from people. I believe that he really has been blessed by the spirits. This city is rotting from within, and the Benders don't do anything about it. They're content where they are, at the top. We need change, Ashur. The Equalists seem to be the only ones trying to change the world for the better."

"So you don't hate Benders themselves?" Ashur asked.

The Lieutenant sighed. "I hate what they stand for. The hypocrisy, the nepotism, all of it. Some Benders themselves are nice enough people. I understand that, perhaps better than some of the fanatics who've joined us recently. But we cannot judge people differently."

"So if one goes, they all go?" Ashur asked. At least he wasn't mad with vengeance, like Hiroshi.

"It's the only way," the Lieutenant replied. "If we remove their powers, then no more Benders will be born, so the world won't have to suffer them again. Amon was right when he said that Bending was the cause of every major war we've had. All it takes is one madman with that inhuman power, and the world burns for him."

"Well, I'm glad someone has thought it through," Ashur replied. "I was beginning to worry that everyone had joined for a foolishly short-sighted reason like revenge."

"So why did you join then, Ashur? I believe your story to Amon was about being unaccepted within your own family, and of a hatred of their arrogance, was it not? How is that not as bad?"

Ashur hesitated. "I said that at first, but my time here has shown that I didn't know enough about the world to judge it based on my family. Having seen Republic City, I know that things have to change here," he lied through his teeth. He was getting quite good at it, if he said so himself. "If that means being with the Equalists, then so be it."

"So you do not believe in all our goals?" the Lieutenant asked. "Just the social change?"

Ashur nodded. "I do not believe the Benders are to blame. They are a product of the society, not their powers themselves. They just need to be shown their place." Very, very true.

His superior smiled. "Well, perhaps you do belong here then. I admit, I was skeptical, because of your youth. But perhaps that is how our revolution should be led. We have some popularity with the youths, particularly the street rats, since we are fighting against the government that refuses to help them, but I shall suggest to Amon that we think about recruiting from them. The youngest should have a say in their future city. After all, it will be yours longer than it is mine."

Ashur laughed. He was thankful that it wasn't too strange a place to laugh at in the conversation, otherwise he would seem insane. "Thank you. Saying that means a lot to me." Not just because it was an amusing connection to his long-term goal, but the acceptance of Amon's right-hand man was definitely a useful bargaining chip.

Ashur turned back to the stuffed target that they were currently practising on. "I dislike beating up things that can't fight back. Perhaps you would care for a spar?"

The Lieutenant nodded. "I warn you, I won't go easy on you because of your youth. You're a soldier now, with everything that entails."

"In that case, I won't go easy on you because of your age," Ashur replied with a smirk. "Come on then, old man. Try and hit me."

* * *

So, Ashur's moving up in the world, commander of his own little section of the Equalists. Strangely, the most annoying thing about this chapter was having to rewrite 'the Lieutenant'. Not only is it impossibly hard to spell, but it's just so... Impersonal. For other characters, like Korra, I can understand using a moniker like 'the Avatar', but not for someone who Ashur actually gets on well enough with. I don't want to name him myself either, but...

Speaking of which, I gave the Lieutenant a different motive to his apparent 'I hate Benders' thing in the show. For all I know, that motivation was a result of the Bending response to the Equalists, and not something he started with. The Lieutenant is highly skilled, strong enough to fight the Avatar on equal footing, and is loyal to a fault. He also shows no signs of fanatacism through the show. Just another example of Korra's lack of exploration of Equalist views, I suppose...

I feel I should point out now that, despite the fact I am giving more reason to the Equalists, I don't believe in what they're trying to do. For one thing, anyone trying to remove a system that averts the laws of physics like that is an idiot just based on what can be done with those skills (though the laws might be different in that world to account for that, I grant you), but the Equalist idea of removing all Bending from people is really just a more family-acceptable form of genocide, when you think about it. Strange that Avatar shies away from mentioning that fact, considering how close Airbending and Earthbending were to being wiped out...

I'm also at a bit of a crossroads with the next chapter. I have it written, it's just the ending... It can go in two ways, and the one that's easier to explain is also the harder one to write my way out of. It's a bit of a dilemma.


	8. And the Winner is

The Pro-Bending arena was surprisingly packed, considering Amon had gone out live on radio and taunted them with this attack. It was a move of sheer brilliance, one that Ashur would never have thought of himself. He was willing to admit that. Amon was either going to attack their pride or attack their person. It seemed that, for Benders, their pride was more important.

Alternatively, perhaps it was the danger itself that made so many people come here today. It was a weird thought, but maybe some people wanted to be able to say that they were there. The Avatar was probably a massive draw as well. He found it hilarious when she was introduced as a 'Future Industries Fire Ferret'. Well played, Hiroshi, well played.

There were a hundred and ten Equalists in the audience – at least, a hundred and ten Equalists who were here for the mission. There were probably more here to watch the spectacle that was about to happen. There were probably even some who didn't believe too strongly in the movement and wanted to just watch a bit of sports.

Ashur himself was here both for the mission, and the sport. He was simply curious about it, having heard that it glorified Bending and that it should be banned and so on. He studied up on the rules beforehand, at least the basic ones, so that he could follow it.

Just because he was here for business didn't mean he couldn't enjoy himself beforehand as well.

The farce that was occurring down in the middle of the arena though was just depressing. Blatant cheating was the best of it, with bodily harm being thrown in. It was so obvious that it was actually almost too much. He felt like announcing their presence now just so he didn't have to sit through more of it.

Perhaps Amon did have a few points in his rhetoric that were valid. The crowd seemed to be cheering for the Wolfbats more than the Fire Ferrets. In fact, he could've sworn that he heard more Fire Ferret supporters earlier, but they'd either stopped in disgust or adopted the pragmatic stance of supporting the obvious winners.

It seemed that the Wolfbats didn't have any idea of what the word 'subtly' meant. Cheating would have been fine with Ashur – It just showed more skill than the opponent when it came to setting the game up – as long as it wasn't this obvious. He honestly wondered why the referee was allowing it to go ahead, since it seemed his career would be over after this match. Maybe it was enough money to retire on.

As the match wore on, the time of reckoning approached. Ashur covered his mouth with a cloth, in case anyone decided to throw a smoke grenade to conceal their movements, and slipped on his electrified gauntlets. This would be their debut, so they wouldn't seem too strange at the moment. He could merely be gathering his things before leaving in disgust. He wouldn't put it past some of the people.

The Equalist presence in the audience was meant to follow a simple enough plan. At the signal, they would slip through the crowd, using their electrified gauntlets to knock out the Metalbending police that had been drafted in to make the place safer. Ironically, their presence made it easier, since the gauntlets were created specifically to fight them.

Ashur would have the honour of taking out the current Police Chief, Lin Bei Fong (though he didn't think she would be in charge much longer), and Councilman Tenzin, a man who would be vindicated by tonight's attack. At least, he would have been if it weren't for the fact that the Police Chief had been heard by Equalist spies as being willing to take the fall.

He approached the Councilman and the Chief as normally as he could, muttering 'excuse me' and 'sorry' to those he nudged on the way through. It would've been hard to single him out as doing something strange. Then, when he was out of the row, just heading towards the pair that were his targets, lightning went off elsewhere in the crowd.

"Damn," he muttered, since he needed to get these two down quickly. He lunged forwards at the Chief first. They were old, but age didn't mean too much here. He'd heard they were both powerful fighters as well as Benders. They were also pretty much still in the prime of their lives. He would unload the highest power he could on them, and they both dropped. How long for, though, he couldn't say.

"Look out!" The Councilman saw him, but not early enough for him to warn the Chief.

As the Chief went down, he was blasted back by a sudden gust of wind that knocked him over the edge of the seating and into the central arena. He just managed to grab the metal railings before he fell. It happened faster than he had expected. If he had thought about it, he'd have burnt bronze and captured that element's signature pulse as well. The problem there was that wind didn't have a shape, so he couldn't anticipate its movements or its effects.

Still, it wasn't enough to stop him. He swung himself back, over the railing, and gave himself a speed boost for his jump from steelpushing against it. The end result was that he barrelled into Tenzin and took him out, this time, before he could react.

His primary targets out the way, he went after his secondary target.

The commentator was not a Bender, as far as he was aware, but they needed control of the system for Amon to have his customary speech. Security was light, thanks to the police being knocked out left, right and centre by an attack they couldn't have forseen.

"There appear to be masked members of the audience wielding strange devices with their hands," the commentator said. Ashur wasn't paying attention to his friendly chatter, but it was hard to ignore now he could hear it in stereo with the door as well.

He slammed open the door with a well-placed, pewter-enhanced kick, and it opened up the small room. He entered, watching the man carefully.

To his credit, the commentator just looked up at him and continued talking, grabbing the microphone with his hand so he could still be heard. "One of them is in the booth with me. He is levelling one of those gloved devices at me right now. I believe he is about to electrocute me! I am currently wetting my pants."

Ashur released the blast of electricity at him. You had to admit, the man certainly had guts to keep talking like that. It was worthy of respect.

Through the window, he could see Amon taking centre stage. He sat down on the chair that until recently, the commentator had occupied. There were many strange dials located on the desk in front of him, but they were thankfully all labelled. He switched the microphone in the booth down to minimum, and set the stage microphone up to maximum.

Amon started to advance on the Wolfbats, who attacked back with something akin to desparation. They were easily subdued, and their Bending removed. Then they were unceremoniously tossed into the water. Ashur was pleased that the cheating Benders had been given their just rewards. He checked himself as soon as he realised that he felt that way. He didn't want to get too attached.

"I believe I have your attention, Republic City..." Amon started on his speech. Ashur didn't bother listening too closely. He'd heard it all before, in one form of another. Benders are bad, Equalists are good. The difference with this speech was that he was formally declaring war.

At the end of his speech, Amon pointed upwards, through the glass ceiling, towards the sky. The airship loomed into view, their getaway vehicle. He wasn't sure how he felt about the Equalists having such a thing. Another thing he would have to examine for weaknesses at some point.

The ceiling shattered, raining glass shards down on the crowd. Ashur wasn't bothered about that, though it seemed a little reckless compared to how the Equalists had acted before. Perhaps that was the difference between an open war, and what was happening before the announcement.

Ashur left the little booth, intent on disappearing into the crowd before he became noticed. He took the gloves off his hand and tossed them over his shoulder, and lowered his mask. Hopefully no-one had seen-

"You're an Equalist!" A brave – or perhaps foolhardy – Bender shouted, and suddenly the stairs became ice, threatening to trip him. Pewter gave him ungodly balance however, and he was able to jump down the steps without falling off them.

The explosion that hit the centre stage at that point surprised him. He wasn't sure he remembered that in the plan, but it at least meant it was less likely for Amon to be followed.

Then a torrent of swirling water shot out from the arena below, and the Avatar launched herself up at the ropes that carried her enemy away. It was not enough, however, and she started falling. Ashur had no sympathy for her at that point. She should have realised that she would never have made it.

He disappeared off into the panicking crowd, hopefully losing the one who had singled him out earlier.

His luck betrayed him again, however, as he bumped into someone in the crowd in orange and yellow. "I'm sorry," he said, pretending to be the little boy he appeared to be (he couldn't pretend to be a scared little boy. That was beneath him).

"That's quite al-" the man began, before he noticed who it was. "You again," he said, before Ashur felt a blast of wind knock him from the seating area and into the arena once more.

Ashur swore to himself as he fell. Twice the same man with his rare Bending abilities had managed to get the drop on him, and this time he couldn't stop himself without it looking obvious. He burnt iron, connecting himself to the railings once more. He did it enough to slow him down to a nonlethal speed, but not to stop him.

He felt a cushion surround him as he reached the ground, and hit it even softer than he had at first thought.

The Councilman dropped down in front of him, hands raised in a stance that Ashur hadn't seen before. No doubt it was one that favoured Airbending. Actually, his current stance seemed to be one similar to his own Mistborn combat style, favouring speed. Considering what he had heard about Councilman Tenzin, it probably favoured defence, unlike his own which favoured offence.

"You slowed me down?" Ashur asked his opponent. The Councilman nodded. "Why?"

"I don't want to kill you," he replied. He sounded like someone's grandfather. Then again, he looked like someone's grandfather as well. "I care about non-Benders as well. I don't want to fight you if I don't have to. The Equalists aren't the only way."

"I'm not here to talk," Ashur said. He wished he hadn't been so quick to discard his gloves. If he'd known he'd be forced into a corner like this, he wouldn't have. The only ways out were through the changing rooms that the Pro-Benders used. Luckily, there was one of those behind him.

For a third time, his luck betrayed him, as at this point, Korra's two teammates appeared on the scene from the ladder that led to the water down below.

It wasn't as though he didn't think he could defeat the three of them. Fire and earth were elements he had fought before without any difficulty, and while he was inexperienced when it came to fighting the wind, it was just one man using it against him. He wouldn't be able to compete against Ashur's superior speed, power and reflexes.

"For the Lord Ruler's sake," Ashur muttered. It was wrong to take his name in vain like that, but the situation warranted it.

"Is Korra alright?" The taller one asked, clearly more concerned with her than he was about the Equalist in front of him.

Good.

"Korra's fine," the Councilman began, but Ashur dropped a smoke grenade at this point, using the moment's distraction for all it was worth. The old man gathered a furious wind around himself and used it to dispel the smoke, but at this point, Ashur had already downed two of his remaining four vials of metal. That left him with the ability to refuel after the fight, or even during it if need be.

As the smoke cleared, Ashur lashed out at the shorter of the two brothers. He went down with a grunt of pain, and most likely wouldn't be getting up again soon. That just left one other in between him and the exit.

"Bolin!" The tall brother looked at his brother, and punched a blast of fire at Ashur to get him away. Ashur couldn't defend himself from fire like that, so he had no choice but to dodge, setting him further away from the exit.

Another updraft beset him, threatening to knock him off balance from his dodge, and the old man stood between him and the downed boy. "Please, stop this," he said to Ashur. "You're on your own here. Your friends have left you here on your own."

Of course they had. He didn't matter all that much in the Equalist campaign, at least not yet. He ordered a lot of them around, but at the same time, he wasn't irreplaceable. It only made sense that they would leave him here. That didn't mean he was pleased by it, even if he understood it.

Should he spout some Equalist mantras? It seemed like it was expected of him, but he so loved to disappoint. "I am a little annoyed by that," Ashur nodded. Now there were two people in his way. "Move."

The Councilman shook his head, and pressed both of his hands forward in a sudden movement. Wind slammed into Ashur as though he'd pushed on something much heavier than him. He burnt steel and pushed against the railings beside him. It pushed him into the ground, since they were above his position, but it was bearer than being blown away. He put a hand into his pocket to get out his second and last nugget of atium. He put it into his mouth without any preamble this time.

Then there were a few thuds beside him. He knew, thanks to the fact he was burning steel, that two of the Metalbending police had just dropped beside him. He looked at one of them, and saw they had their gauntlets pointed at him.

He raised his fists, intending to fight them off. He prepared to burn atium, but then three more hit the ground around him. He looked up. There were more up there, so many more. The stun had worn off, it seemed, and the several dozen Metalbenders only had one foe to focus on.

"Damn," he muttered, swallowing the atium accidentally as the cables shot out and tied themselves around his feet and hands and he hit the ground.

* * *

...Not Ashur, it would seem.

Anyone wonder why, in the Final Empire, 'hell' and 'damn' are swear words, yet they don't mention the concept of hell as a place? It's a shame Ashur is from the first Mistborn trilogy, really. I quite like 'Rust and Ruin' as a phrase.

Also, out of curiosity, anyone reading play the Mistborn TRPG? I'd love to, but sadly I have no-one here to play it with. Just wondering how it is. I've got the rules, but playing the game's entirely different.


	9. A Short Stay

Ashur retched as quietly as he could, concealing the motion with a loud cough. The chink of his metal handcuffs helped as well. The Metalbenders who were guarding the cells were not the same ones who arrested him, so he could probably get away with pretending to be ill.

The position he was in was utterly humiliating. It wasn't just the fact that he had been captured, but he was placed in a cell that was almost as bad a place to live as a skaa would live in. There wasn't even any privacy allowed. It was degrading. Perhaps that was the point of it.

He hid the atium bead that he had thrown back up in his clenched hand, since his current clothing had no pockets. It was foul, but at least it meant that he had a trump card when he needed it. It took a long time to throw it up though.

His metals were not low yet, but he would definitely run out of them quicker than he wanted, even if he didn't need them. Metals dissolved into the body after a while. He had no idea how long two vials would last him, but he couldn't... retrieve... the rest, since they were in shaving form rather than bead form.

Ashur knew that he had to escape as quickly as possible. The longer he was here, the less metal he had to utilise. They were keeping a close enough eye on him though to prevent him from making too many moves. He was the only one that had been managed to be captured at the Arena – Another humiliation to add to the current list. But that made him a valuable political bargaining chip, but not one strong enough to prevent the firing of the current Police Chief, he was pleased to note.

He sighed as he sat against the cell wall and examined the silvery-green atium bead in his hand. It was perhaps about fifty seconds' worth. It would have been worth more earlier, but atium took a short time to dissolve. In the two hours it had taken him to get to somewhere he could retrieve it, it had shrunk quite considerably. It could probably survive another four in his stomach, maybe five. He'd have to hide it overnight. He doubted it would work, considering he was in a prison, but maybe some metal would be overlooked.

The cell itself was sturdy and well constructed, even if it wasn't particularly pleasant. Three solid stone walls, bars instead of the fourth. It was definitely a prison for non-Benders, since he was neither tied up, nor looked at particularly often. After all, what could someone like him do behind iron and stone?

As it happened, annoyingly little. He could not squeeze through the bars, despite the fact he was smaller than most that they would have arrested. He could not break the bars, even with pewter. He'd tried, and it seemed that the bars were actually made of something tougher than iron, since they also had no signs of rusting. Even iron, the metal he thought would be most useful, was worthless here, since he couldn't see the cell keys from here. His best bet was waiting until someone walked passed with them and thieving them while they were distracted.

Footsteps sounded on the stone floor – At least it was easy enough to hear people approaching – and stopped at the bars.

"Police Chief Saikhan wants to see you," he said, not completely concealing his distaste at the mention of his new superior. Ashur filed that away for later use.

The officer put his hands on the door, pushed, and the door opened. Ashur sighed as he realised that there was no need for Metalbenders to use keys when they could just will the metal tumblers open. He 'coughed', swallowing the atium again.

Ashur obeyed and followed the officer out of the cell. He didn't seem to have anyone else as his escort, but there were a few others currently walking around and keeping an eye out as well. The question was whether to enact his escape now, while he had comparatively vast quantities of atium, or take the risk of waiting.

No, he'd wait, for now. The opportunity hadn't arisen. It was late in the day, so he would wait until the night, when there would probably less on guard. Surprise and their lack of knowledge about his own abilities were his greatest weapons, and not ones he could use twice here.

He tried to get the officer to make at least a little conversation. He mentioned the dislike on Saikhan, and was amused and a little impressed when he failed to get a rise. It seemed it wasn't the man they disliked, but the fact that they had lost Lin Bei Fong. Ashur was deposited him behind another door that used their strange-but-useful locking system, and he was left waiting.

Ten minutes later, he once more threw up the atium bead. He applied a little of his precious pewter supply to the motion to make it easier. He'd have to swallow it rather quickly if someone came into the room, but it was a risk he was willing to take.

Half an hour later than that, he was exceedingly pleased that he had done so. They were clearly making him wait to make him uncomfortable and jittery. He was not used to waiting, but it wasn't as if he didn't have any patience. The people here sometimes meditated to spend time peacefully. Ashur had not done so back home, but he understood the principles.

Ten minutes later still, he heard footsteps approach the door, and quickly devoured the atium bead again, wincing at the taste of bile on the metal. It wasn't hard to hear the footsteps outside, he didn't even have to resort to atium. It was a disadvantage of the police here wearing so much metal.

Saikhan seemed to be a serious man, at least from how his face looked. He was bald on the top of his head, but had hair around it. He sat at the other side of the wooden table with a sigh, putting his elbows on the table and looking at Ashur over his hands.

Ashur would have matched his stare, but he was aware how much time meant to the fortune sitting in his stomach right now. "So what do you want?" he asked, his voice a little raspy from his current attempts to disguise his atium bead. "I thought that I'd be interrogated by the Chief of Police."

"I am the Chief now," Saikhan replied calmly, though he knew Ashur was taunting him. It would be a poor officer who would let himself be goaded by a prisoner, after all. "What's your name?"

"These chains are uncomfortable," Ashur said, lifting his hands onto the table to show the handcuffs off. He wasn't sure if he could break them, even with pewter. He'd probably need something strong and sharp to do it, or maybe even the assistance of another person and a hammer. "Can you take them off for me?"

Oh for the ability to force people with emotional Allomancy. Saikhan ignored his query and placed two vials on the table between them, on their sides, since they had no flat edge. He placed his hand on them, both to stop them rolling, and to stop Ashur taking them. "A new Equalist weapon?" He asked.

"Possibly," Ashur replied.

"It's not," Saikhan continued dismissively. "Pure metals, dissolved partially in alcohol," he shook his head. "No explosive properties, nor is it any kind of drug or poison. Care to explain?"

A brief spark of inspiration struck Ashur, and he was careful not to let it show. "It's medication," he said. Well, strictly speaking, pewter made him feel better and was good for his health, so it wasn't a complete lie.

"Medication," Saikhan repeated, in disbelief. "For what, precisely?"

Ashur shrugged, ever the unhelpful person. "Your guards heard me earlier, I'm sure. Not sure why I should tell a Bender why I needed." He spent some of his dwindling supply of brass here, to downplay Saikhan's suspicion. He burnt zinc, and flared up the Chief's protective aspects.

"That's not enough," the Chief said. "We need more.

"Fine," Ashur muttered. "I have a deficiency in iron and copper in my body. I'm meant to take those vials twice a day – Once at nine in the morning, and once at nine in the evening. Is that quite alright?"

Saikhan sighed. "I suppose so. If it's true, then I suppose you should be given it. And if not, it's not as if you can do much with it. We've already determined that it isn't dangerous. If you tell us who gave you this medication, then we can confirm it and get more if you need it." It wasn't as if he could do anything with the metals, after all. At least, as far as Saikhan knew. And in addition to that, to the police here, Ashur was just a low-ranking Equalist, a kid as well. He could use that.

Ashur nodded. "Thanks. I suppose." He couldn't help but grin inwardly at the idea of Saikhan getting him new metals for which he could use to escape. He just needed to keep the ill act up.

"Now that's out of the way," Saikhan continued as he put the vials out of sight, "I am here to explain your sentence."

"I was under the impression that I had a trial first," Ashur said. It was half a question, and half not. Perhaps he had misunderstood obscure rules about that. His guilt was, after all, pretty much a given considered, but still.

"The Council's new rules state that Equalists may be held without trial for a period of a week, and in the case of guilt observed by four or more officers, sentenced without one as well." He grimaced.

"You don't approve?" Ashur asked, interested in what the head of the lawkeepers felt about the very law they kept, as it were. And if he could sow more discord, well, perhaps that was a good thing.

Saikhan sighed. "When I became an officer, I pledged to uphold the law to the best of my abilities. However much it disgusts me, I've already seen what happens to people who protect the people instead of the law."

"Giving up?" Ashur asked. "That's pathetic."

"I know," Saikhan nodded in agreement, "and I have a great deal of respect for Chief... For Lin Bei Fong, for how she has acted. But if we disagree with those who make the laws, all that is left is anarchy. The police have a duty to both the people and the law. If I am removed for helping at the expense of the law, then someone else will take my place. For all I know, they may be someone who is less lax when it comes to enforcing Tarrlok's Anti-Equalist laws."

"So you enforce it in a way that means that a sixteen-year old like myself is looking at prison without trial?" Ashur raised an eyebrow. Saikhan's thoughts about it did make sense, he had to admit. It was, in a way, the good of the many over the few, in an odd sense.

"You did attack the Chief of Police," Saikhan pointed out. "Lin might be more forgiving than her nature would suggest, but even she would want you punished for it. In light of your age, she might suggest something other than imprisonment, but regardless."

"I'm just a scapegoat, aren't I?" Ashur asked. "The only Equalist who you could capture. I bet you're pleased with yourselves for managing to overpower a kid. Publicising that all over the radio, aren't you?"

"We... Haven't mentioned your age," Saikhan admitted. "Now, your sentence is a total of two years, for the crimes of attacking an officer, a Councilman, and being a member of the Equalists. You're lucky that no-one died in he attack, honestly. It would've been pinned on you, and your sentence would be at least five times that amount."

"So what happens now?" Ashur asked. "I go back to my cell and try to pretend that I was wrong about the City being broken?"

Saikhan sighed for the second time since he entered the room. "Is there anyone you would like us to contact? Any family?"

Ashur shook his head. No doubt that they would jump on anyone he told them about with accusations of being an Equalist. It was a good tactic, since it sounded like Saikhan was just being sympathetic instead of being cunning. "No, no family, nor friends for that matter."

"Very well," Saikhan said, standing up. "I'll have one of my officers take you back."

"Ah, before you go," Ashur said, "What's the time? I should take my medication soon if it's as late as I think it is."

Saikhan thought about it, then nodded. He handed over a vial to Ashur. After all, it was just metal and alcohol. They could even identify the metals inside. "Best to drink it now, since it's just past nine thirty."

Ashur nodded and downed the vial in one go. He grimaced afterwards, though inside was another matter entirely. He had his two previous vials inside him, plus this one. He also had a bead of atium. Now would be the best time for him to try it.

He burnt his newly replenished pewter and tin as soon as he could. He knew the way to the exit, as the plans for the building were relatively simple. The only problem was that he had to get to his cell first, to get his bearings.

As his cell came into view, he was pleased to see there was only one other guard here. Most of the prisoners were, for lack of a better word, relaxing in their cells, so it seemed that the officer current escorting him came from here. It was a shame he couldn't free any other prisoners really, but it couldn't be helped.

As the officer opened his cell, he flared his pewter and kicked the officer's head hard into the metal that made up the door. Before the other could react, he burnt iron, and pulled on one of the blue threads connecting him to the other one. He propelled himself down the corridor with a single leap, adding the extra force to the punch that took that guard down. The metal clanged on the floor though, a strong noise in the silence here. Then the alarm went off, a clear and constant ringing throughout the prison.

He pulled himself to the other side of the room with another assisted leap, making sure it looked as though he was attempting it under his own power, even if that own power seemed to be ridiculous. It was better that he was thought of as amazingly skilled, strong and fast rather than having abilities beyond normal people, after all.

This time he pushed himself down with steel, colliding with another guard on the way that sent him spiralling to the floor from the slight clip. He came up quickly though, before bounding off again. Knocking the guards out now was pointless unless he could do it without taking up any time.

Travelling through the prison at a speed the Metalbenders found it hard to match, he was able to run from them with moderate ease, but he really needed to get into the open air as quickly as possible. He was dismayed when he came up against a set of metal gates that led to his freedom, particularly since he was travelling at too fast a speed to stop himself hitting them. He swore as his arm went numb, but a quick flare of tin brought it back to life, along with adding to the pain. It was another one of the Metalbending locks, something he couldn't deal with. And he was so close to the exit...

He looked around quickly, before settling on a window on the opposite side of the room. The window here was possibly large enough for him to hurl himself out of. He didn't like the idea of that, but he had little choice in the matter. He didn't even have a way to smash the window. He'd have to smash it out with his own body.

One of the police came round the corner, flanked by two more a second later. "Go back to your cell without a fight," one of them said, "and we'll forget this ever happened."

Ashur waited until he was close enough, and gritted his teeth. This was going to hurt. He burnt steel both on the officer who had dared to command him, and on the metallic exit door behind him. The force of both transferred through him, and the door wasn't moving. The officer went flying through the window, to the shock of his companions, who started shouting about a Metalbender being lose in the prison.

Ashur ignored them and dove out of the window. He was a few floors up, but he had a downed officer on the floor to use as leverage to push himself further. He smiled to himself as he steelpushed him for a second time. He was out, and he still had about fourty-five seconds of atium to use at a later date. Unfortunately, he spent the rest of the night being hunted down and chased throughout Republic City after he retrieved it for the third and final time that day and broke his chains.

His secret might also be out in some form, but who would believe it? After all, the only people who saw him use it were Metalbending Policemen, who were the enemies of the Equalists, and he had escaped from. It would be almost too easy to frame it as an attempt to cover up their own blunders and attack the them with a pathetic discrediting of him. Then again, he doubted most of the Equalists would even listen to such a thing, let alone give it any credit in the first place.

It was about two in the morning when he finally managed to lose his tail and get into an Equalist safe house. As soon as he got there, he fell asleep, and didn't plan on waking any time soon.

* * *

Ashur's escape this quickly from prison shouldn't be that's surprising, let's admit it. The Inquisitors could only jail Vin because she was forced to take aluminium and remove her metal reserves, and these guys don't even know what Ashur's capable of. Incidentally, I couldn't quite remember when the Pro-Bending final took place time-wise, so I set it about mid-afternoon. It's when sporting events usually take place here, at least. I also thank a random thought of FMA's Kimberly for the idea of concealing atium so.

Saikhan's another character in Korra that never had his motives fully explored. It took me looking at the Avatar wiki to find out that he wasn't actually in Tarrlok's pocket all show. But then, Korra never really interacted with him except for shouting at him for arresting her friends, so I suppose it makes sense.


	10. Making Plans

Ashur woke at about two in the afternoon the next day, feeling sore all over. He had run and fought and generally tried to evade as long as possible, and now his body was paying the toll. Not just that, but he had been burning his pewter for much of the night (and morning), so the drag was hitting him as well. It wouldn't have been so bad, if it wasn't for the fact he had tried not to use iron and steel again to escape his perusers.

Still, he was now a very wanted man by Republic City. Before, he had just been someone who got away from the Avatar, an impressive but ultimately unimportant designation. Now he had escaped from the jail under the noses of Saikhan, which wasn't a good start to his career.

The safehouse was actually the house of a family who belonged to the movement, one of thousands throughout the entire city. All Equalists were theoretically welcome at one of these, though in practice everyone hoped that they were never called upon.

Ashur hadn't requested much, aside from water and a bed for the night, followed by food whenever he happened to wake up, so he was tolerated relatively well. When he eventually surfaced that day, he upped his demands to the day's broadsheet.

Reading through it, he couldn't help but snort in derision. The ante had been increased to a 'dangerous Metalbending assassin who tried to kill the new Chief of Police', apparently part of a division of the 'Secret Equalist Benders' who supposedly led the movement in the shadows, manipulating the non-Benders. True, most of it was no doubt speculation and rumours, used to sell a paper, but it was amusingly far from the truth.

He had read half of the sensationalist article (he briefly wondered if there were Equalists on staff to distort any truths hidden in there) when there was a gasp from the mother of the family he was hiding with.

Ashur looked up from his breakfast (Lunch? Dinner? Whatever), and even he couldn't help but be surprised. "It's been a while since you've been out in the city, Amon," he commented. "For what reason do you grace our presence?" Too flippant? It was too flippant. He could see that in the way that Amon's eyes narrowed.

"I wish to talk to you, alone," Amon said. The father of the family was out, but the mother was quick to offer to take her children for a walk while the head of the Equalists discussed whatever it was with Ashur. Such adoration was honestly sickening to watch. No questions asked, none given.

Amon steepled his fingers and watched Ashur across them as he finished his food. "You're injured," he said finally. "Your arm was dislocated at some point last night. You set it back badly. From the escape that we've been hearing so much about, I presume?"

"Sprained my leg as well, from landing on it badly. Metalbenders are fast," Ashur replied. "I had to take a few out when they caught up with me. It was a very long day, I was tired, and made mistakes."

Amon nodded. "How soon will you heal and be able to return to active duty?"

Ashur thought about it. "With a Waterbender to heal me, a few minutes. But it's too risky to fake my way into a healing centre. I will have to do it on my own, or with an Equalist trained in medicines. With aid, a few days. Without, perhaps a week." He was overestimating, but he had some things he wanted to carry out on his own. Gathering more metals, for instance, and hiding out and letting some of the heat die down.

"I'm going to ask you a question, Ashur. Answer it honestly. Are you a Bender, or a spy for the Council?"

"Why do you say that?" Ashur asked, trying to buy time for a good answer. It was obvious why Amon was suspicious, it was only a matter of time before such a thing happened.

"An Equalist who could not even learn Chi-Blocking, escaping from the Police Headquarters is a surprising piece of news to hear," Amon said, as if he were having a polite conversation instead of the accusations that were being contained. "Particularly when the police claim that he is a Metalbender. Indeed, the only other explanation is that you are a spy, and you were allowed to escape so you could pretend to be a hero to us while gathering information. Is either of these true?"

"What I say doesn't matter, does it?" Ashur asked. "If I was a Metalbender, even if I was loyal admitting it in front of you would be a fool's move, and if I was a spy, the same applies. All I can say is that I am no Bender, and that I am not passing information on to the Benders. I cannot prove either of them though."

Amon nodded. "You can," he said. "At least, you can prove that you are not a Metalbender. I will perform the same operation that I do to other Benders. Either way, you will be one of us afterwards."

Ashur thought quickly. He was almost certain that Amon couldn't take away his Allomancy, because Bending and Allomancy worked differently. Chi-Blocking couldn't stop him, and Bending relied on the ability to manipulate your chi to in turn manipulate the elements. Allomancy consumed metals and did not rely on such a thing. But, then, either way, he had no choice. Amon had placed him in a position where he couldn't refuse.

Ashur nodded. "Very well. I will show you that I am not, at least, a Bender." He stopped burning all of his metals, just in case Amon could detect them within him being used. He didn't think it could happen, but he could detect Benders with bronze, so it was better safe than sorry.

Amon walked behind him, and placed one hand on his shoulder, the other on the top of his forehead. A curious sensation flooded through Ashur, as though he couldn't move. Nerves, perhaps. Then there was a sensation of invasion, as Amon's chi flooded through him like it had done to countless Benders before.

Amon sat back down after a short while. "You are not a Bender," he said. "Indeed, I do not believe you have any chi at all. That would explain why you cannot use chi-blocking. I am curious as to why, but I don't think you would have an answer either. Do you?"

Ashur shook his head. It was probably just because he was an Allomancer, from a foreign land, but he couldn't tell Amon that. "So that just leaves me as either a spy, or as an incredibly talented warrior that is indispensable to the cause."

Amon looked him up and down. "While I admit that you do not appear to be a strong fighter, I have heard from many sources that you are indeed as good a fighter as the enemy say you are. Therefore, I shall believe that you are our ally, rather than on their side. However, know that you are under suspicion from many who believe otherwise."

"Noted," Ashur replied with a sigh. Well, that could have gone worse. He burnt tin, relieved to see that it had not deserted him. He couldn't imagine what he'd do if he wasn't a Mistborn, let alone an Allomancer.

Six days later, Ashur turned up at a general meeting of the heads of the Equalists, which was primarily to discuss the fact that Hiroshi Sato had been exposed as an Equalist. Apparently his daughter had refused to join, which Ashur found amusing. Amon was obviously there, as were The Lieutenant and Hiroshi himself, but there were three others that Ashur had heard a lot about but not seen before, having not attended one of these meetings beforehand.

The first was Shu Yin, the leader of the only non-Bender gang. The power vacuum that Yakone had left after his exile from Republic City had been massive, and everyone had wanted a slight. Shu Yin dealt ruthlessly with the other gangs, annexing all those without powers into hers. No-one was under the illusion that her support for the Equalists was less about morality and more about the struggle for power.

Next to her was Zan Dai, a wealthy man like Hiroshi, though he made his wealth in radio, the papers and advertising. His support for the Equalists was more because he was able to play both sides, so it didn't matter to him who won. He was tolerated because his business was extremely useful to them. Rumour had it that he was currently struggling with a bid from Cabbage Corp for his company, and that Horoshi had propped him up a little as an attack on his rival, but nothing could be proved.

The last was a large man named Qiang Zhong, and he was there because he was of the opinion that Benders were driving non-Benders out of business. In a way, Qiang Zhong represented a group of people like him, and was just their spokesperson. First amongst equals, as it were. He had once owned a forge, but when Firebenders put their work out cheaper, and could work without coals, he'd gone out of business. It was a story that had been seen in many other places, and so he was there for all those who had been broken by Benders outpricing them with their abilities.

It was Zan Dai who spoke first, and he was unsurprisingly questioning Ashur's appearance here, with regards to the recent coverage in the media. "Amon, I must lodge a complaint. You may not follow the papers as closely as I do, but I have heard stories about this boy, ones that cast doubt on him."

"I can guarantee that he is not able to use Bending in any form," Amon replied impassively from behind his mask.

"But that's not proof," Shu Yin spoke up, in a tone that suggested she wasn't used to being disagreed with. "We only have your word, after all. What about these tales of a 'Bending Elite' within the Equalists?"

"You think that such a thing would have escaped Amon's notice?" The Lieutenant asked.

"I'm thinking that perhaps it didn't," Shu Yin replied darkly.

"Enough," Qiang Zhong put his enormous fists onto the table with a thud that drew attention to him. "If you do not trust Amon, then you should not be here."

"Agreed," The Lieutenant said. "If you are not fully behind our leader, then leave."

The room turned to watch Shu Yin carefully, in case she decided to make a move. But no, she didn't, and merely shook her head. "No, I trust Amon."

"I assume that no-one else wishes to raise leadership issues?" Amon asked. When no-one said anything, he continued on, "then Ashur's presence will be explained after we have discussed what we have met for primarily."

"As you are no doubt all aware, yesterday Hiroshi was revealed to the world as a supporter of the Equalists. In addition to this, the enemy was able to find our main laboratory for the creation of mecha tanks, and discover their existence as well. However, thanks to quick-thinking on the part of our subordinates, none were taken from us."

Qiang Zhong nodded. "That is good. I will sleep easier for knowing that the Bending scum will not be able to find their weaknesses during their own time."

"How many other laboratories do we still have that our working?" Shu Yin inquired.

"There are another four, about half the size," Hiroshi Sato explained. "They are in no danger of discovery, as they are not marked on any maps. The only way for someone to discover them would be to stumble over them randomly, or to obtain the knowledge from an Equalist who had been there." His eyes flickered over to Ashur briefly.

"I haven't been to any," Ashur said quickly. "Other than the largest, that is. Nor did I tell them anything either," he added for good measure.

"The papers have become quite insistent as of late," Zan Dai said. "The propaganda war has been hurt by the suggestions that they are throwing around. Unfortunately, I cannot prevent what they say from leaking out, or they would discover my treason as well. My suggestion is that we use this time to lay low and regroup. The news will die down quick enough."

"I disagree," Shu Yin looked at Zan Dai with what seemed like scorn. "You're not a fighter, so you wouldn't know how to conduct a campaign like this. No, what we need to do is force new headlines. We should press the attack while they think we're on the ropes."

"And what would you suggest?" Amon asked.

"The Avatar. She needs to be killed," Shu Yin replied with a shrug. "I've said that for a long time, and you haven't listened."

"The Avatar is still a symbol," Amon said, shaking his head. "She needs to go, I agree, but not yet. At the moment, all that would happen is that the Equalists would become a pest to the world, to be exterminated as quickly as possible. We cannot defend ourselves if that happens."

"So we take over the city first?" The Lieutenant asked. "I doubt that the United Forces would be willing to destroy what they would see as their own town, a town built by the Avatar."

Amon nodded. "My suggestion is that we take over the Council. It shouldn't be hard to remove five old Benders from their homes and remove their abilities. Without the heads of the city, they will be in disarray. We should train our people for that attack. In the meantime, Councilman Tarrlok is being quite helpful to our cause."

"What do you mean?" Shu Yin asked.

Ashur smirked a little. He'd been following the rumours in the town quite a bit, while he was convalescing and drawing up plans to remove the 'suspect' tag he currently had around his neck. "Rumour has it that Tarrlok is considering a non-Bender curfew, and the removal of certain rights towards people 'suspected' of being Equalists. He's setting the public up to believe that there are only two sides, Benders and non-Benders. This will win sympathy from both sides, even if the Benders don't protest too much. We are fortunate that the Council is in Tarrlok's pocket."

Shu Yin nodded. She wasn't particularly politically minded, but she could understand the idea of letting your enemy do your work for you. "So we allow Tarrlok to do more damage before we remove him permenantly."

"Lieutenant," Amon said to the man next to him, "draw up training and attack plans for such a task by the end of tomorrow." The man nodded in response. "Any other news of import to discuss?" No-one said anything. "Then we will discuss less important tasks then. Ashur in particular has some plans for consolidating our hold on the city once it is ours, so we shall hear that first. Ashur?"

Ashur nodded and stood up from his chair. These plans would remove any doubt over him, particularly when they were acted on. It would also conveniently act as a quick way to get the people of Republic City used to the laws of the Final Empire. He walked around the circular table, giving one handwritten sheet to each of the people there before standing back at his seat.

"The laws that would be enshrined by these plans detail wartime plans for the non-Benders of the city, as presumably we would find ourselves at war as soon as we take it over. These are made so that the people do not feel oppressed. The divisions of labour, food and so on are contained within the plans. However, I feel that the main problem is with regards to Benders being left in the city."

"Practically, it is impossible to remove Bending from every person here. I say that because we cannot even tell if someone can use Bending unless we observe them doing so. As such, these plans contain the makings of a special task force, created from the orphans of the city who have been mistreated by Benders. I shall let you read them in your own time. If there are any questions, do not hesitate to ask."

Shu Yin's hand went up immediately. "I have a question. What does 'Inquisition' mean?"

* * *

I was going to edit something here before I posted it, but annoyingly I can't remember what. If there's something that seems strange, please tell me. It's probably that I didn't add a larger explaination or change it properly. Also, soon as I wrote that, I couldn't help thinking of Monty Python and The History of the World Part 1. Sigh.

Anyway, the Equalists are not a united front. It's a group of terrorists/freedom fighters who only have their singular hate binding them together. You mix people in from all walks of life, there's going to be some clashes. Even if Amon is apparently universally beloved by the Equalists, there will be people in charge of different policies. I also added the singular non-Bending gang because, really, why shouldn't there be one? Benders are tougher than normal people, I understand that. It requires Chi-Blocking to properly defeat, and even then it's rare before the Equalists arrive (who did Amon learn it from?). But Avatar's people are tough. You have physically tough feats performed by most of the cast. What's stopping a properly run non-Bending gang? In a way, this chapter showcases a larger, more diverse group of Equalists.

Ashur got off quite easy in the prison with regards to the fact that he has what people here would consider 'impossible' powers. How else could he have escaped but Metalbending? The idea of eating metal for those powers is also nonsensical. Unless they knew the mechanics for Allomancy, they can only believe that he was telling the truth with it being medication. The idea for exposing Ashur as a Metalbender is obviously from the exposing of Amon as a Waterbender. Of course, with Amon, no-one believed it until they were shown proof. Why should they believe it, after all? It's clear that Avatar lacks a way to discover if people having Bending abilities other than actually having them use it. It makes you wonder how many other Equalists are Benders in secret, just playing along to make things easier.


	11. A Different Jail

If there was one thing that Ashur would never understand about how the Equalists operated, it was the disconnection between how they worked and their goals. Sure, working to throw off the hated oppressors was all very fine, but when they had their Bending taken away, what then? Was there any point in keeping them imprisoned when they had been 'Equalised'?

Aside from Amon's policy of not wanting anyone to die – in a revolution, of all things – there was the fact that they had quite a few of the ex-Metalbending police left in the cells. It would have been better to release them back into the city, to increase the terror being felt by the populace. There was little problem with them telling people where they were kept, considering most of the street rats knew where the entrances were. And even if that wasn't the case, they could be blindfolded on the way here and back as well.

All-in-all, it seemed that this place wasn't too used to organising a revolution like this. Hell the skaa revolution back home was more organised than this, and that was honestly depressing, considering how useless they were. At least they managed to take out Allomancers now and then for good, and knew how to use subterfuge to its best advantage.

The Equalists had managed to achieve much more here in a shorter time, but that was pretty much just because there was only one Avatar, in Ashur's opinion. If there were a handful of people who could use all the elements, like the Steel Ministry and their Inquisitors, or if The Lord Ruler was in charge, it would be a very different story.

In addition to that, the Benders here weren't used to the idea of people rebelling either. They knew how to deal with armies, judging from the fact there was a war a hundred years ago or so, but when the common people rose up they couldn't do anything about it. It was for that reason that Tarrlok seemed to misjudge how to keep the people oppressed properly, it seemed.

Ashur had a lot of time to think about things at the moment. He was sitting on a chair in the jail cells underneath the city, in the underground tunnels and sewers where the Equalists had build their impossibly hard to find fortress. He wasn't imprisoned, rather he was on guard. That was why he was so bored at the moment.

He was also annoyed that he was being given grunt work. It was a not-so-subtle punishment dictated to him from up on high for being the only one who managed to get himself captured during the operation. Honestly, that was just embarrassing. It was also a way to keep him out of sensitive meetings, since he usually just turned up unannounced and mostly unwanted. He still had some way to getting the trust back that he had built up here.

His Inquisition plan seemed to be getting some traction though. The idea itself was something that the Equalists liked. They needed to get the rest of the Benders living in Republic City somehow, and an Equalist mirror of Tarrlok's specal task force seemed like the best way to do it. The only question was whether or not he would be allowed to lead it. Though if he didn't, then the main way of discovering Benders was lost to them – Not that they knew that.

The laws that he had drawn up were what was mostly being looked at right now. Most of them were simple enough, considering that wartime rules were pretty much the same no matter where you went. He suspected that most of the delay was because he was the one organising it. No doubt Shu Yin, who had lived her life expecting betrayal from everyone in her gang, was going through it with a fine-tooth comb for any hidden clauses which benefited Benders.

But until he was given another mission, he had nothing else to do but sit here and attempt to meditate on his thoughts. It wasn't as if he really had anything to do at the moment either; he had no plans to make, few people to talk to and no room to practice any of his forms.

The prisoners for the most part kept themselves to themselves, unsurprisingly. He was pleased to note that one of them seemed to recognise him, at least if the snarl was anything to go by. He'd probably evaded or beaten him up during his prison escape. Ah, happy memories.

Of course, it was only when he was just about to fall asleep when the loud noises started. The sound of metal slamming into things, and of earth hitting earth and water. The sewers sounded like they were under attack. He sighed and he stood up and put his electrified gauntlets on. Maybe this would be interesting, or at least would help him pass some of the time.

A few minutes later, a small group of Benders stood before him, ready for a fight. He was surprised to find that he recognised most of them – Ex-Chief of Police Lin Bei Fong seemed to be the one who had lead the attack, and with her was the Councilman Tenzin and the two Benders who had barred his passage from the city a bit about two weeks ago. The only person he didn't recognise immediately was the young woman, but it was simple enough to guess that this was Hiroshi Sato's daughter.

"No Avatar with you?" He asked in surprise. She was their strongest asset in a fight, so why would they have left her behind like that? If this was meant to be a proper assault, he'd have expected her along to help. It meant that she might at this moment be attacking elsewhere, and these people were just a distraction. He had to find out where she was.

"Where's Korra? " the taller brother asked, clearly ready to gather flames his his hand. He then realised just what Ashur had asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ashur tried to keep his face straight even as he cursed himself for speaking first, before he could discover what the situation was. He clearly wasn't on the top of his form when forced into such a usually boring job like this. "I asked you why you didn't have the Avatar with you," he said, this time letting his voice become condescending to mask his surprise. "I can't believe you'd be so careless as to _lose_ her." He burnt zinc, rioting their anger. Anger made for mistakes and rash judgement. He didn't expect it to work on Lin Bei Fong, but the two boys were clearly hotheaded, pardon the pun.

"Where'd you put her?" Mako asked, seemingly needing no emotional manipulation to become angrier. Ashur's affable reaction seemed to be doing enough on that front. His eyes were on Ashur, even as the rest of his friends watched the other Equalists and the ex-policewoman looked in the cells sadly. "We know you attacked the council!"

"Mako, calm down," the Councilman advised, but the Firebender ignored him.

"You're a fool if you expect me to tell you like that," Ashur said, leaning on the wall behind him. "It's not even as if you're in a position to bargain. In fact, you just strolled into the centre of an Equalist base, cut off from reinforcements, and you expect to be able to not only find your precious girlfriend, but to be able to escape?" He didn't miss how Hiroshi's daughter flinched at what he had said. That was information to give to the scientist. Maybe it would restore some trust.

"I'll make you talk!" Mako shouted as he punched a gout of fire at Ashur's head, kicking off the fight.

Ashur dodged it easily enough, since it was kind of obvious how the Firebender would strike in this emotional state. Fire seemed to be a dangerous element to wield. It had power, yes, but it and the Bender who used it seemed to be prone to their emotions.

He looked at the four people attacking the Equalists. Hiroshi's daughter was busy taking the Equalists out with their own weapons – Something Ashur honestly found amusing – and Lin Bei Fong was helping her by ripping the cell bars out of their stands and launching them at the attackers. The other brother got into a stance that was similar to an Earthbender's normal stance, but obviously modified for Pro-Bending. That alone was enough to tell Ashur what Bolin could do.

Ashur jumped before the earth started to form around his feet, pushing off the wall to barrel into Mako. He hit the boy with a strike to the chest before springing to his feet in fluid set of movements. Pewter was extremely handy with things like these. He shuddered to think how things would go without it.

Unfortunately, the strike had placed him next to Bolin, who attacked in order to give his brother time to recover. Earthbenders were slow, though, so it was easy enough for Ashur to dodge or block the attacks with his own arms. Since they were in close-quarters, Bolin couldn't fire rocks from the earth at him, and he'd already shown he could react quick enough to dodge the ground swallowing his feet. He hit Bolin's right arm three times, followed by his right leg twice, with fast and solid punches. Ashur still wasn't able to use Chi-Blocking, but he could disrupt his enemies' bodies easily enough with the principles behind it.

Sad to say, the success he was having was not shared by the rest of his fellow guards. The women of the team and Tenzin had pretty much disabled or knocked out the worthless Equalists, and were now ready to deal with him.

Lin Bei Fong threw one of the bars of iron at Ashur, and he had to drop to the floor to avoid being pinned to the wall by it. She was watching his hands, remembering all too well what had happened the last time he managed to touch her metal armour with it. Hiroshi's daughter was watching, waiting for a chance to get into the fight as well, but staying back whilst the metal was flying. Councilman Tenzin added extra force to the attack with his Airbending, as well as pushing Ashur slowly down the corridor.

Ashur burnt steel the second time Lin Bei Fong did that, and pushed against the iron bar gently. It was as much a test as anything, as he didn't know whether they would be pushed apart by their forces or not like two opposing Allomancers. If she felt any force though, she didn't show it. The bar did slow down, as if Ashur had been pushing on it on his own. Just more proof they were different systems, really.

He was rather pinned down like this, annoyingly. The old woman seemed to be surprisingly resilient when it came to exerting herself like this, and she had no shortage of ammunition to hurl at him, and the Councilman was pressing him down with his Airbending. Add to that the fact that she was simultaneously freeing some of the prisoners, and it didn't look good. Suddenly he was glad he'd gotten the drop on them the last time.

Instead of continuing to fight them, Ashur took a coin out of his pocket and made a show of throwing it, though he was also steelpushing it at the same time. The coin flew through the middle of the attackers, but that was fine since his target was the alarm directly behind them.

They were surprised when it started to blare, and all he could do with smile at them in amusement. "Well, your attack was rather pointless, and all it will end up in is your capture." And now all he had to do was prevent them escaping. An easy enough task.

He didn't expect Bolin to raise his arm and block off his part of the jail cell with a wall of earth. He flared his pewter and tried to demolish the wall, hoping it was thin enough that it would crumble if struck in an unstable place. Once again, Bending proved to be extremely annoying, as it turned out the earth barrier was quite thick. From out the corner of his eye, and through the corner of one of the broken cells, he could see them running away, with the handful that they'd managed to free.

Ashur muttered to himself and, since all of his allies were either unconscious or not in a position to see, pulled the keys from their rack with iron. He caught it with his right hand, and immediately started to undo the door to a damaged cell. The other side had iron bars removed, but importantly it was on the other side of the earth barrier.

He ran out of the cell, chasing after the four people who had been both stupid and brave enough to try this. He was joined quickly by other Equalist guards, who listened as he barked a quick explanation and orders.

It wasn't difficult to follow them, not with his nose. The tall boy had smelled of smoke and ash, and like a bloodhound he was able to track that with no complications. It lead to a set of rails, the same set that the Equalists had lain in order to move earth and people quicker when excavating the tunnels.

Ashur grimaced. He could chase after them if he told the others to wait. The rails were made of metal, after all, and he could probably propel himself down them using steel with great speed. But then, one of them was an Airbender, and chasing after him would be pointless. The other problem with that was he'd never done it before, and there were other things he could do.

Someone had to tell Amon that the Avatar was missing, after all, and that the council had been attacked by someone masquerading as them. Actually, it was easy enough to see what had happened, if you thought in plots. Tarrlok and the Avatar were known for not seeing quite eye-to-eye. It was quite possible that they'd had a particularly bad fight. That meant that the Councilman knew where she was, and that was a chance the Equalists had to jump on.

All they had to do was 'convince' Tarrlok to tell them where she was.

* * *

The most dangerous foe for a Mistborn to face is someone who fights intelligently and uses their surroundings. Amusing to note that I originally forgot Tenzin went along as well. But anyway, they flee as they should.

Honestly, this chapter was larger than I expected. I'd planned to deal with the next episode as the main meat of the chapter, but it seems like that didn't end up being the case. Also, sad to note, that with the other stuff I've written and may or may not use, I've missed out on that special 50k words in a month mark.

So, my gripe with this part of the show? Why did Amon keep the Metalbending police after removing their powers? Surely it would've been better to release them back into the wild in order to sow discontent and terror? Really, as terrorist groups go, the Equalists are kind of shoddy. But then, so are the Benders who oppose them, so I guess it balances out.


	12. When Extremes Meet

"So what makes you so sure that they're out here?" Ashur asked Amon, when the silence on the truck became too much for him to bear.

They had left the city almost as soon as Ashur had told Amon what was going on. There was almost no time to prepare, and they had only stopped to pick up the Lieutenant, a dozen masked Equalists and a few trucks to transport them.

The atmosphere had quickly become oppressive, and not just because it was snowing and the sky was grey. The others on the truck weren't talkative. Ashur quite liked snow, he had to admit. It was a far purer white than he was had been lead to believe, without the ashmounts tainting it. As such, it was feeling similar to home, and so he was the only one willing to speak at the moment.

When it had started snowing, Ashur had reacted with quite a bit of interest. Interest that immediately marked him as having never seen it before. While it was a bit more personal than the information he usually liked to give out, it had rewarded him by people asking if he had come from the Fire Nation. It hinted that The Final Empire was in that direction, since it was warmer and had its own ashmounts. He hadn't followed up on it, since he hadn't the time nor inclination at the moment, but it was something he had stored away for future reference.

Amon said nothing, passively watching the road ahead through his mask. He, Ashur and the Lieutenant were sitting on the back of one of the trucks, waiting as they were being driven out. Ashur turned to the other quiet man for an explanation, and was relieved to actually get one.

"We've been following the movements of the Council closely recently, in order to enact the next part of our plan," the masked man explained. "From what we have observed of Tarrlok recently, he exited the city in this direction recently and returned from the same gate at the supposed time of the attack. We set off in this direction, gambling on that, and so we aren't too far behind him."

"So why do we need so many people for this?" Ashur asked. "Surely this would be better as a covert operation? The more people we have, the more chance there is for the Benders to realise something is wrong." And not only that, but the general stock of the Equalist mook squad was shoddy at best. They simply weren't fighters, unlike most Benders who had trained all their lives.

"We're expecting the Benders to realise what has happened quite quickly. They won't be as fast as we will be, but we don't know how long a window we will need to retrieve the Avatar," he continued. "We may have to end up leaving some of us behind in order to achieve our long-term goals. Everyone knows what they may be called on for here."

"Not me," Ashur muttered, but only to himself. He could easily escape in the middle of the wild, even in the snow. He didn't know the terrain, but as long as they snow wasn't too deep, he should be able to steelpush his way out of here with relative ease. "But it's still a bit of a risk, isn't it?"

"But if we do get attacked, we will be glad we took it," the Lieutenant finished.

The rest of the journey was silent. When the vehicle stopped, Ashur found that they had followed him to a small wooden cabin that was pretty much placed in the middle of nowhere. There was a single set of tire tracks other than their own, and they led to another van parked outside.

"Inside," Amon nodded to his men before walking up to the door. They replied with an affirmative each, and followed him.

The inside of the cabin was sparsely decorated, as if someone had given it the semblance of being lived in but no more. Considering this was probably the Councilman's safehouse, it made perfect sense. And there, coming up a set of stairs that led into a dark basement, was the man of the hour himself.

"Amon!" He said, eyes widening in fear, before being replaced with a small amount of confidence.

"It is time for you to be Equalised," Amon said, not moving from his pose with his arms behind his back. It was a stance that assumed superiority over the others in the room.

The others prepared themselves to fight, but Ashur did not, not immediately. With the numbers they had, there was pretty much no need to fight. He doubted Tarrlok would give himself up, but the result would be the same either way.

"You fool," Tarrlok said, a laugh rising into his voice as he raised his arms. It seemed somewhat like he was controlling puppet-strings, to Ashur's eyes. "You've never faced Bending like mine." Ashur couldn't help but find his arrogance amusing.

As the dozen Equalists that had followed Amon into the building, including Ashur, walked forwards, he felt a sudden pressure from within himself. It was as though his blood was forcing him to move, controlling all of his limbs. It was painful, very painful, and he couldn't fight against it. He flared pewter, which took some of the pain away, but it was still too strong for him to resist.

This was Bloodbending's power, he realised with horror. This was why the Lieutenant feared and hated it so much.

A footstep brought him to attention. He was not unconcious, like some of the others, and he was just able to move his head to be able to look up. Amon walked forward, uncaring. Tarrlok looked confused and worried that someone was able to resist him.

Ashur burnt bronze. Not only did he wonder what Bloodbending's pulse felt like (unsurprisingly, as similar to water as metal was to earth and lightning was to fire), but there was only one reason he could think of that allowed Amon to walk forward like that. It was quickly confirmed by the pulses coming from both of them.

Whatever puppetry Tarrlok was able to enforce on their bodies, Amon was using it as well on himself in order to control his own body. It was the only thing that made sense, with what he was sensing using the mental metal.

The pulse from Tarrlok strengthened, as if he was flaring a metal, and Amon bent slightly at the knees and slowed down, an agonising crunching noise coming from his bones. But it wasn't to last, as Amon's own pulse strengthened in turn, enough to overpower Tarrlok's Bending.

"What... What are you?" Tarrlok asked in fear as he took a step back.

"I am the solution," Amon replied, before he took threw Tarrlok onto his knees. Amon then placed one hand around Tarrlok's neck and placed his other hand on his forehead. There was a moment of silence in the cabin before Amon too Tarrlok's Bending in the usual manner, with his own Bloodbending.

Ashur pushed himself to his knees, the pain slowly lessening as he did so. He stopped burning bronze as he thought about what he had seen. It was truly a terrifying experience. He didn't think he had any way to stop it being used against him or any other Mistborn either, since it was a purely physical experience. Copperclouding only affected mental metals, after all.

Amon issued an order to the Lieutenant to get the Avatar from the floor below, but Ashur drowned it out with his thoughts. They could deal with a caged girl.

If Amon was a Bloodbender, that left one of two possibilities. The first was that Amon truly hated Bending in all its forms, and only used his Bloodbending in order to remove the ability from the face of the earth completely. He was becoming a monster for the sake of everyone else. He wasn't making a martyr of himself, since he was keeping it quiet, but he was one all the same.

The other possibility, and the one that was more likely in Ashur's suspicious opinion, was that Amon was removing Bending so that he was the only one left with it, in a similar manner to how the nobility were the only ones allowed to use Allomancy, and any skaa Allomancers were killed to stop it spreading any further.

Actually, that didn't have to be his specific goal. Amon was building himself a nice little power base from which he could take Republic City, and perhaps even further. It could be that his Bending was just the means to the goal, rather than part of the goal itself.

Either way, it was something he could use as blackmail material, to destabilise the Equalists. Of course, the movement wouldn't collapse from that single revelation, but it would certainly lose momentum.

It wouldn't do too good to use that ace at the moment though. On the whole, removing Bending from the city and everywhere else but having a single Bloodbender around was a better situation than there being any number of potential Bloodbenders. Ashur had no doubt he could kill Amon, provided he could do it without being detected.

But what if Amon could sense where anyone was around him? It would mean that a sneak attack would be impossible because he could always sense your blood. And in addition to that, if the first attack failed, then the second attack would be impossible to go through.

The best idea was probably to kill him from a range. Ashur had no idea how long a distance Bloodbending worked over, but he was willing to bet it was smaller than that of a good steelpush. All he needed to do was buy some sharper weaponry than his coins. Small darts perhaps, possibly with some poison to dip the tips in if he could obtain it somehow.

It wasn't that his coins weren't dangerous enough on their own. No, coins were very often used by anyone who could burn steel as a lethal weapon. The problem was that Ashur was smaller than most Allomancers who utilised that tactic, and he needed to definitely kill. In a fight, a debilitating but nonlethal wound was better than an outright death at times, whereas this would be an assassination.

There was always the possibility that Amon might accept life under The Lord Ruler, but it was extremely doubtful, especially if he truly was trying to take over for his own benefit. And there was also the fact that it was unlikely that any Benders would be left alive once this place was annexed anyway.

Then again, if the Equalists succeeded, there wasn't really any need to worry. Amon was, after all, just one man. A powerful man, yes, but he was nowhere near the level of The Lord Ruler himself.. All it would take was a group of Inquisitors, and Amon wouldn't be able to fight his way out.

"Ashur, get up," Amon muttered, cutting his thoughts off, as he picked Tarrlok up.

Ashur nodded, standing up as requested. His body still felt strange. "Sorry. I was just a little shaken by that," he admitted.

Amon sighed. "Bloodbending is truly the most evil of the Bending disciplines." He handed Tarrlok to Ashur. "We'll put him in the truck, for now. He should be unconcious for some time."

Ashur nodded, moving Tarrlok to redistribute the weight. He was surprised that Amon had given the fully grown man to him, considering Ashur didn't look too strong, but then he had demonstrated both his strength and endurance to Amon on multiple occassions, so perhaps it wasn't that weird. He probably needed to be ready to remove the Avatar's Bending anyway.

As Amon started to open the truck's doors so Ashur could throw the Councilman in, there was the sound of feet hitting snow at a run or a jump. The pair of them turned to see what the noise was, and Ashur was dismayed to see Korra had escaped from the others. They were truly worthless, weren't they?

Korra raised her arms, and icicles flew towards them, kicking up a sudden mist of snow and water into the air, impairing their vision. Ashur dropped their prisoner, since it didn't matter if he got speared through, and dodged the few that were in his direction. He followed Amon, catching up quickly and subsequently almost flying off the edge of the snowy hill when Amon suddenly stopped at the edge.

Ashur watched her form as she slowly got further and further away from where they were standing.

"I thought I told you not to underestimate her," Amon muttered to the Lieutenant as he appeared.

"I'm going after her," Ashur muttered as he took a few steps back to get more of a run up.

"No," Amon said, making the Mistborn stop and look up at him. "It would be hard enough to follow her down such a steep slope, and no-one should encounter the Avatar alone like this."

"I've already defeated her once," Ashur replied. Admittedly, it was with atium, but the Avatar looked half-dead as it was anyway. As for the other part, he was pretty certain that pewter would stop him from tumbling down uncontrollably.

"It's doubtful that she would be able to survive in the forest anyway," the Lieutenant added, no doubt wanting to make up for his previous failure. "No-one knows where she was other than us."

"I'd rather we didn't take that risk," Ashur replied. "I'll bring her to the headquarters."

Amon turned to look at Ashur, then nodded once. "Alive," he instructed, before walking back over to their transportation, "or not at all."

Ashur sighed. "If I must," he muttered, before jumping.

* * *

Yeah, the first proper deviation starts now, I suppose. Originally I'd written this scene to follow the original plotline, but honestly I realised that was a little stupid, when one considers the skills that Ashur's already displayed to his leader. Amon didn't go after Korra at all in the show, despite the fact that he easily could have. Even the Equalists could've probably climbed down the hill with little difficulty if they took it slow. No reasons were given, and it just seemed as though the writers dug themselves into a little bit of a hole.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I keep seeing small flaws in how the Equalists act. And yet, despite this, they almost win. It's really quite worrying.


	13. Camping

Ashur dropped down the hill, and was surprised to find that it was actually quite exhilerating. True, his shoes didn't really help with sliding down the snowy slope, but it was half a combination of sliding and running, assisted by pewter to make sure that he didn't trip and fall over. Honestly, this was easy for him. The hard part, Ashur knew, would be stopping.

In the end, stopping was surprisingly easy; it was just a lot more painful than he'd have liked.

Cradling his head after hitting the thick, tall tree that he had crashed into, he put a hand to his belt and drank a vial of metals down. It wouldn't be a good idea to be without metals like this. He would have stopped burning his pewter if it wasn't for the pain he was feeling right now. It was made worse by his tin, but he had to keep that up. It was hard enough to see in the first place.

Standing up, he took out four coins and buried them in the ground in an arrow shape. Judging from the journey to this point, the arrow should be pointing at Republic City. It wasn't possible to tell at this point though, due to the poor weather. He thought he could see a brighter patch of sky in that direction, but he'd need to be closer to tell for sure.

Korra wasn't too hard to find down here. She had left a trail in the snow, and even when she had stopped sliding down the hill, there were still footsteps where she had walked. Judging by how close some of them were, she'd likely been stumbling. There was a handprint as well, where she'd fallen over and had to get back up.

She was lying on her front, looking a little pale from the cold. A thin layer of snow had fallen on her, and she seemed to be unconscious. She was breathing, though, and seemed to be unharmed. She was definitely worse for wear, in any case.

Ashur turned her over so she was now on her back. It would help her breath. Other than that though, he didn't have a clue about how to look after people in any shape or form, let alone someone who was getting colder by the minute and was probably suffering from not eating all day.

Then again, did he have to?

Amon had said to bring her back alive, but it would be easy enough to convince Amon that he hadn't been able to find her. He could just leave her here and turn up in Republic City in a few days without her, and no-one would know any better. He'd become decent enough at lying over these past few months for that.

Although to be perfectly honest, it was better to take her out for definite. It was all too easy to imagine someone stumbling upon her and taking care of her. It'd be impossible for his friends to get here without meeting Amon on the way back, but that didn't stop a stranger who lived in the woods finding her. No, he shouldn't just leave her here.

He dug around in the snow, and was easily able to find a rock. It was sharp, and had a jagged edge, and would probably be perfect for this, even if bludgeoning the Avatar to death would be less than pleasant. He raised it up above him.

As a Mistborn, he had to be ready to kill at any time. It was a lesson that had been hammered into him from a young age. There were three things that made Mistborn so dangerous: The first was the fact that they were all higher ranking noble, and any of the more important nobles were inherently dangerous even without Allomancy. The second was the versatility that a Mistborn enjoyed, and the flexible powers they controlled. The third was the mindset, to know one's power and that you were above normal people. To know that you could kill anyone with ease, no matter who they were.

He was also a fighter, and fighters killed, to put it simply. Death was unavoidable when you were in combat, since it was difficult to pull punches when fighting, particularly against people of the same abilities as you. While he was pretty sure he hadn't killed here, since he was favouring torso damage rather than attacking the weaker head, accidents could always happen. It was just something to come to terms with. It wasn't as though he'd ever frozen because of that thought.

It wouldn't even be as though this was the first death that could be attributed to him, for that matter.

Like most of the noble males of his age, he had indulged at times in a local skaa girl of his age on occasion, keeping her for a few weeks as was the custom. But he hadn't done so very often, since he was usually busy with training and helping his father with his research. Either way, it didn't diminish the fact that the law of The Final Empire was iron, and those girls had been killed after a few weeks.

True, he hadn't killed them in person. Indeed, he'd never actually killed someone himself. He hadn't specifically ordered it either, though his father found such things to be a useful deterrent to keep the skaa in control. He'd never honestly thought about the fact he'd put people to death. Why should he? They were just skaa, after all. No better than property, though they were technically the property of The Lord Ruler, rather than the noble lords.

But this was different. He was actually considering killing someone, in a pretty horrific manner, and doing it himself. No-one would know, after he washed the blood from his hands and clothes, and the largest threat to The Final Empire would be gone without anyone ever finding out. He could hide the body and no-one would know, though they'd quickly get suspicious.

Ashur looked at Korra, who was breathing harshly and shivering. She'd probably barely feel anything either, half delirious as she was. It was kinder than what would happen to her if the Equalists got hold of her. He knew he'd rather die than lose his Allomancy. Then again, it would be a death sentence anyway, as the head of a noble house. Thankfully he knew of no way for that to happen.

He brought the stone down, not in a quick motion, but so he was no longer holding his arm up in that position. The stone was brown, just a generic rock. He turned it over, and in the light it appeared red for a moment. Not the colour of blood, but that didn't matter as soon as his imagination took over.

The red rock grew more vibrant, taking on a sanguine colour, as though covered in Korra's blood. It began to drip off the rock, onto his hands and arms. Her body was red, a bloody mess over her temple, a horrific visage in death.

"No!" He threw it away in disgust, the rock landing somewhere in the snow and quickly being buried. He looked at his hands, glad to see that they were clean. He sighed and placed them on the snow to stabilise himself. He felt sick.

For all his talk about Amon being too weak to accept any deaths, and the stupidity of keeping one's enemies alive like this, he just couldn't do it either. He could order deaths, he knew that, but he didn't have to deal with that. That was something that was easy to forget about, because he never saw it. He was a coward who refused to dirty his own hands.

Ashur sighed and pushed himself up. It was getting late, and they'd freeze to death anyway pretty soon if he didn't do something about it. It would be a shame, after coming to that revelation. He had no knife, he was disappointed to note, but he'd still be able to pry smaller branches off.

The pile of twigs that lay between them was honestly poor, but it was the best he could do. He didn't want to use up all his pewter, since he might need it at a later date. Conserving one's abilities was a tough choice to make, but a necessary one. He'd used it to pry off a few larger branches, but stopped after he had half a dozen.

Now he just needed to set the fire going. Pointedly avoiding the previous rock he found, he took a pair from the ground, under the snow. He had no flint, but surely it wasn't too different. He struck the rocks together, and was pleased to get a small spark. Good, it seemed that the method that the skaa servants used with flint worked with other rocks too.

After a small amount of time, he had no idea how much had passed, he was ready to give up. It seemed that there was a different between just striking two rocks together and actually using flint. He had no idea why, but it was sadly true. The one time he had managed to get a fire to catch, it had been blown out by the wind in short order.

Sighing, he went over to Korra's body and nudged her with his boot. She hadn't stopped shivering, though he had in the end given her his coat. It would make him more vulnerable to the cold while he was sleeping, it was true, but he had long since been able to instinctively burn pewter. It would keep him alive, he was sure of that.

Korra moved a little, letting out a small groan. Ashur waited impatiently until he had her attention, which took a while, before speaking. "We need a fire," he said. "You need to light it with Firebending."

The young Avatar pushed herself up into a sitting position. She was cold, it was clear from how she was shivering, but it was less violent than before. It was the kind of weather she was used to, after all, and she knew how to survive it, or at least her body did. She was definitely hungry though, from the sounds her stomach was making. Without questioning Ashur's orders, she lit the fire.

Ashur sighed a little as the heat washed over them. It was far too little, compared to what he had expected. They'd easily freeze like this, even with the small fire. It wouldn't last too long either, he'd need to get more fuel. In addition to that, they had no food. Hunting was another skill Ashur had never developed, and while the actual catching and killing of the animals would be simple enough with steelpushing, he had no idea if you were meant to do anything to the animal before it became edible aside from cook it.

"Not enough to keep you from dying," Ashur said. "Can you make it any hotter?"

Korra shook her head a little, drawing her legs in. "Not enough fuel to make it last," she said, confirming what Ashur had thought.

"Anything else you can think of?" he asked, aware that she was originally from a culture that thrived in far colder conditions. He was willing to defer to her judgement here, even if it was a bit galling to have to do so. But then, he wasn't supposed to let her die.

Korra nodded. She pointed her hand at the other side of the fire, and drew it up. The snow started to pile up into a small buffer against the wind. She lowered her hand and repeated the motion, and more snow piled up on top of that. Ashur watched, honestly fascinated, as she created walls all around them out of the snow, and then created a roof out of the same material with a small hole in the top. She had, thankfully, left a gap for a door, albeit one you might have to crawl through.

It was now much warmer inside, since it was no longer windy and there was only a little snow coming in. "Amazing," Ashur couldn't help but mutter to himself. It was the first time he'd seen Bending used outside of combat, it was a little surprising for him to realise. "And it won't just melt over us?"

Korra shook her head, leaning against the wall. "Back home, they make houses out of this stuff," she explained, as colour slowly returned to her face. "It won't last long, but it doesn't need to."

Ashur looked over at her, then sat down, watching his supposed captive. She was putting on a strong face, but she was clearly worse for wear. "I don't suppose you know anything about preparing an animal to eat?"

"Uh... Just fish," Korra replied, "but that's not really hard." She stopped, putting a hand to her face as she stopped herself sneezing, another sign that she was becoming ill. "I've never had to catch my own food before. Aside from when I first came here."

Ashur sighed. "Great. I probably should have thought more about this..." He should have at least remembered to carry a knife with him at all times, they were just so useful. It was something he couldn't help kicking himself over again and again. He put his hands on his knees and pushed himself back up. "I'll see if I can find a river and catch something."

Fishing with his bare hands would definitely be a challenge, possibly one beyond him. Maybe his electrified gauntlets could help there, he'd heard they channelled their lightning through water easily enough. If not, he might be able to do something with a sharp branch and pewter-enhanced speed, or blocking fish in with piles of snow. He couldn't help but smile a little to himself. It wouldn't be a challenge if it was easy.

In the meantime though, he turned to Korra. "I hope you're not stupid enough to try and escape or set a trap. Without me you'll die pretty quickly out here, and you don't know in which direction Republic City is. And you know how a fight between us will go," he added.

The response from his captive was a defiant nod. "I know. I won't turn on you out here." Her tone made it very clear that she would as soon as they got Republic City in sight, but it was good enough for Ashur for now. All he had to do was incapacitate her, and they both knew that he could do that. She just wasn't the sort of person to be taken without a fight.

In the meantime, he had to keep her alive, though he didn't have to help her build her strength up. She just needed to be kept in a state where she was able to travel well enough. Taking his coat back off her, he shrugged into the slightly damp clothing (he'd need to warm it over the fire overnight, it seemed), and walked back into the snow. Time to see how good he was at fishing and foraging. He suspected he wouldn't like the answer.

* * *

This chapter took a little longer than usual as I needed to think a little about where the story was headed. Pretty sure I know now, and I think there will be a little more than 20 chapters total.

Obviously this chapter is quite important character-wise, and even if little time passes within it, quite a bit happens inside Ashur's head. As we go through The Final Empire, and Mistborn in general, we see a lot of things about the nobility, particularly their uncaring behaviour towards the skaa. They use them as slaves, kill them on a whim, and so on. But we rarely see a noble kill a skaa in cold blood who isn't an Obligator, Inquisitor or guardsman. It's one thing to order a death where you can't see it, but another thing entirely to do it yourself.


	14. Across Snowy Hills

The best thing about travelling with the Avatar like this was that they were, in ways, the same. Mistborn were naturally independent and forceful due to their powers, and so it seemed was the Avatar. She was ignorant of things, true, but Ashur was willing to agree that he was ignorant of things as well. It was a shame that he couldn't really discuss it with her.

Korra was probably the only person who might have understood how it felt to be simply better than other people. Ashur didn't think this arrogantly, it was simply true for the most part. He was stronger and faster than anyone who couldn't burn pewter, had a quicker reaction time than them, and so on. The only thing that he could be challenged on would be intelligence, and Ashur had been coached by the best tutors his father could buy.

The Avatar, of course, had not been tutored in the same way as him, nor was she as fast or strong as he was. But she certainly was stronger than any mere Bender that you could care to mention, thanks to her versatility and the ability to cross techniques into other elements. Sadly, for all that, she was still an enemy, and a bit too brash and impulsive for Ashur to get on with all the time.

Which was why Ashur was currently _very_ tempted to shock her into silence, even if it meant he'd have to carry her until she woke up again. It was understandable, really. Korra was his prisoner, after all, and she was determined to make life harder for him wherever she could. She had also tried to trap him in an icy prison once, but that fell apart when Ashur pointed out that she had no idea where Republic City was, nor did she have anyone else to help her if she relapsed into heavy illness again.

The first day that Ashur had found her, Korra had spent the night in a fever-dream caused by the cold that had seeped into her body from her damp clothes, and more likely than not some of the fruits that Ashur had found being unsuitable for human consumption. He'd been forced to flare his pewter for that occasion, but he had been sparse with it afterwards.

Thankfully it was nearing the end of winter, and there was less snow. It hadn't started thawing out quite yet, and some of the snow had melted to create a treacherous, slippery slush, but his visibility was improving and it was getting warmer. After the first day, Korra had started to get some energy back. Ashur made sure to give her less food than he got though, so she wouldn't get back all her strength. So far, it seemed to be working.

That led to the other problem they were experiencing. Due to both Korra's ever-present illness, the malnourishment she was currently suffering and the still moderately deep snow, they were walking at a snail's pace through the forests and plains outside Republic City. It didn't help that the terrain was very rough, and so they spent as much time going upwards as they did forwards.

It had taken them a few hours to get to Amon's little country house by vehicle, and that was at a good speed. All Ashur knew was that if they kept going in the same direction that they were going at first, eventually Republic City would loom on the horizon.

The stream where Ashur had had his first failure at trying to spear fish with sharpened twigs was a blessing with regards to that. By keeping it on their left, Korra assured him that it would eventually reach the sea, and they could just follow the coast to Republic City. It was a good idea, and Ashur had to admit that she knew more about survival in the wild than he did. In addition to that, it meant they had water whenever they wanted it (aside from the snow), and could catch fish. That was something else that Korra was better at him that, though he was half-inclined to believe that encasing the fish in an orb of water was cheating.

"Why're you doing this?" Korra asked him suddenly, on the third night after starting a fire and raising a house of ice around them. "The Equalists just want to get rid of me, so why are you helping me get back to the city?"

Ashur looked up from where he was coaxing some of the snow into a shape that vaguely resembled a pillow, before sitting down and sighing. "Frankly, I thought I was alright with you dying. It's the safest thing for the Equalists, really. Keeping you around is a liability. You'll just escape again, or something. You seem to be good at getting out of sticky situations."

"So why didn't you just let me die then?" Korra pressed.

"Did you want to die?" Ashur asked, his common mocking tone entering his voice again.

"Just answer the question," Korra replied, rolling her eyes. She had quickly learnt not to rise to the bait where Ashur was concerned, even if it was her usual reply. Confrontation was something neither of them wanted, even if she had the energy. It was a small shelter, after all.

"The Equalists want you alive so we can use you as a symbol. By removing your Bending, it shows that no-one is safe from our reach. In a way, removing your powers is the first real strike against Benders, rather than anything we've done before." He could tell her that much, it was pretty much obvious. He was watching Korra as he spoke, and saw that her shivering increased. "That scares you, doesn't it?"

"Of course not," Korra muttered, looking at the ground to hide the truth. One of her hands started to play with the snow, shaping it into something by a combination of her physical movements and Waterbending. "It's just that... I'm the Avatar. I'm meant to help people. I can't do that if I have my Bending removed."

"Having your powers removed doesn't stop you from helping people," Ashur pointed out. "That is, after all, what the Equalists are trying to do, even if their doctrine is pushed a little too far at times. You're just scared of having your powers removed, aren't you? Of becoming a nobody after being a somebody."

"That's not true!" Korra said, her hand clenching as she looked up defiantly. She took a few deep breaths and looked down. "It's not true," she repeated, quieter this time. She opened her fist, letting the crushed snow fall to the ground.

Ashur couldn't help but sigh. She was cracking just from the idea of having her powers removed. True, he might have felt the same in her position. He couldn't really imagine his life without the abilities Allomancy gave him, how it would be to be normal, the same as everyone else. He was projecting his own fears onto her, really, thinking about what would affect him if he were in her position.

"If you're that scared, you could just run away," Ashur pointed out. "The people here never wanted you anyway. Why bother going to their rescue when they have declared you to be useless to them? Don't tell me that it's your job, or that you feel you owe it to them. Just because you're the Avatar doesn't mean that you can't live your own life, instead of letting yourself be controlled by the fact that you can burn all four elements."

"Burn?" Korra asked, blinking.

"Sorry, Bend," Ashur continued quickly. "I was looking into the fire too deeply," he lied. Maybe he shouldn't put himself in her place quite that much. "But in any case, you feel a duty towards people you've never met, or even interacted with. Why?"

Korra was silent for some time before she answered, watching the dancing flames flickering around as if they would give her an answer. "I never wanted to be the Avatar," she said eventually. "When I first realised what my powers meant, I thought it was pretty cool, you know? To be the strongest Bender, to be world-famous just by existing. And then I was locked up in the White Lotus Compound for most of my life, training all the time."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "When my chance came to escape, I took it, even if it meant coming to a strange place that I'd never been to before. I had no idea that the world could be so cool. It was just... Awesome."

"That doesn't answer the question," Ashur pointed out over the crackling of the fire. "I get that you don't like the fact that your life was mapped out, but it doesn't explain quite why you are letting it be mapped out still."

"I guess..." Korra stopped and thought about it before continuing. "I guess I just want to make a difference to people."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Most people go through life being nobodies," Korra explained. "They're born, they grow up, they work all day for their lives and then they retire and die. And most people don't realise that they haven't achieved anything, other than probably a family and that work."

"So you like your powers because, otherwise, you think you might as well have not existed?"

"No," Korra replied, probably thinking about how the implication sounded, but she relented under Ashur's gaze. "I guess so. I just don't want to be a part of the crowd. Never have, never will."

Ashur nodded, then reached forward to turn over the fish they were having for dinner so that the other side would cook. He'd never thought he'd get sick of fish before, particularly since they were so much nicer than the fish that he'd had back home. "Having no powers doesn't mean that you aren't somebody though. Just look at Hiroshi Sato."

Korra winced, no doubt having worse memories of someone who, from her point of view, betrayed her, her friends, and most importantly, his own daughter.

"Regardless of what you think of the man now," Ashur continued, and he had his own thoughts on the technological genius. Most of them could be summed up with 'psychopath', considering how his reaction to his wife's death was so disproportionate. "You have to admit that he certainly made a name for himself, using his own talents. He didn't have any supernatural ability to wield the elements."

"I know," Korra agreed. "But it's just a part of me now, you know? I can't imagine having them taken away from me, from being unable to use them even if I didn't need to. It'd be like losing a limb."

"I understand what you mean," Ashur replied. "Perhaps not quite how you experience it," since he was talking about Allomancy and she was talking about Bending, " but I do understand."

The next morning was the first time that they saw Republic City on the horizon. Ashur saw it first, since he usually flared tin atop any hill they came across, and after he saw it, he let Korra go first. As such, he wasn't sure quite when Korra saw Republic City, but he was certainly ready for her inevitable attempt to flee.

Korra raised a barrier of ice between herself and Ashur before running off, leaving very shallow footprints in the snow. Most likely a benefit of being a Waterbender, and it meant that she didn't sink in and lose momentum with each step.

Ashur was only a split-second behind her reaction, and the time distance, coupled with the fact that he had to go around the large barrier as well, meant Korra had a good lead on him. It was still quite a way towards the city itself, perhaps a ten minute jog, but this was what Ashur had saved up his pewter for.

It was said that one could sprint from one side of The Final Empire to the other on pewter, and though many, many different estimates were given for the time of such a thing, the one thing that was agreed upon was that it was certainly possible. True, the pewterarm would probably collapse from exhaustion and probably die at the other end if he didn't have buckets of pewter dust to burn afterwards from the effects of delaying the weariness, but it was possible.

As such, Ashur managed to catch up with her before she was halfway there by sprinting, even if such an inefficient method of travel meant he sank into the snow deeply with each step. He drew an electrified bolas from his belt and threw it at her, catching just one of her legs as she ran, but the ropes tied themselves around that leg and shocked her.

The Avatar hit the ground with a soft thud, groaning in pain as the electricity coursed through her system. It wouldn't deal any lasting harm, but Ashur had experienced all those weeks ago when trialling the gauntlets, it definitely hurt.

He sighed and picker her up. She was heavier than he had expected, but then Ashur was used to girls being stronger than they looked due to Allomancy, rather than actually having muscles. As such, it was a bit of a pain to drag her to Republic City's edge. Actually, considering their relative sizes, she probably was heavier than he was.

The first surprise that Ashur received was that there were Equalists openly on the borders of the city, and one of them waved him in with a smile. They were tense, wary of an attack, but at the same time seemed cheerful.

Ashur placed Korra carefully in the snow and retied the bolas around her so she couldn't escape her bonds before looking to the one who had waved. "What's going on?" He asked curiously. "Is there something planned for today?"

The Equalist laughed and slapped him on the back, sending him reeling a little. "We've taken over! Amon thought that, since once of the Councilmen was ours, and the Avatar was missing, now would be the best time. And I see you've captured the Avatar as well! Amon will be pleased."

Ashur nodded in agreement. "I didn't expect this to happen so soon." Particularly since he doubted a full-scale takeover could have been completed in such a short time. That meant Amon was still hiding things from him.

"None of us did, but, you know Amon," the talkative one said.

"Your orders, sir?" The less cheerful one asked, though he still seemed to be happy. He was just more on edge, probably because Korra was bound nearby. Waterbenders and snow were a bad combination for their enemies, after all.

"Help me take the Avatar to a cell," Ashur said to his subordinates. It seemed things were drawing to a close. All he had to do now was find a way to contact home and deliver this strange land to The Lord Ruler.

* * *

And here, of course, is where the story really changes from the end of the Korra anime. The main difference that caused all this was that no-one confirmed that the Equalists didn't attack city hall. Therefore, Korra's friends didn't really know where to look for her, so the Equalists got to her and then lost her and Ashur found her. The reason it took so long for Ashur and Korra to return to Republic City, incidentally, is twofold: Firstly, Korra's illness. Secondly, because it's almost impossible to walk in a straight line without some kind of marker. Studies have tested this sort of thing, and you usually end up going round in circles.

Also, it was fun to point out the similarities between Ashur and Korra, just one more set in a world of similarities between the two worlds. Ashur mixing burning and Bending though was my mistake originally, but I decided it was amusing enough to leave.


	15. The Festival

It was decided that the removal of Korra's Bending would be a public event, a happy holiday for the Equalists, in which there would be stalls selling food, souvenirs, toys, sketches of the event, music and so on. It was a real family event.

At least, that was how Ashur suggested it. After all, there was nothing like flaunting one's victory to demoralise the enemy and to draw out anyone who couldn't accept it.

The fact that it was also supposedly like The Lord Ruler's executions had little to do with it, though the thought was in the back of Ashur's mind as he suggested such a thing. He'd never been to one himself, since Mantiz was a smaller city and the Steel Ministry didn't often schedule skaa executions in the town, but he knew what the atmosphere would be like.

Aside from Korra, there were also four Waterbenders, four Firebenders and four Earthbenders on the schedule. Four was a powerful number here. It was a shame they couldn't get Airbenders at such short notice, but Air Temple Island by its very nature was proving difficult to besiege, particularly since it was where the resistance was currently based. But still, Amon had just pointed out that this gave them another event later in the year.

Ashur, as the one who had captured the Avatar in the first place, was the special guest of the event, and he was honestly enjoying mingling with the Equalists in the crowd, accepting their praise and trying the special festival foods. He was also taking regular swigs of a vial that solely contained zinc, and was flaring that as much as possible, pulling on the crowd's emotions, making them happier, fiercer and more loyal to the Equalist cause.

Zinc, and also its counterpart brass for that matter, had two ways they could be used. Either one could pick out specific targets for rioting or soothing (those better at the emotional metals could select more targets), or you could simple radiate the emotion out from your person, affecting people in a much weaker way, but manipulating vast crowds of people slowly. And with each person that was changed from apathetic to interested, or from interested to pleased, it had a knock-on effect that only served to make more of the crowd approving of the scene.

There were of course dissenters about the spectacle. In particular, Qiang Zhong felt that it was far too macabre and disrespectful, as did others who joined the Equalists for social equality rather than power-based equality. The crowd had carefully been seeded with Amon's favoured subordinates, ones who hated the Avatar above all others. They were carefully changing the minds of the people, and would lead them in the jeers later.

Ashur had to hand it to Amon, whether or not he knew how to handle problems, he certainly knew how to handle a crowd.

It had been a little more than a week since Korra had originally gone missing, and three days since he had returned to Republic City with her. In that time, the Equalists had repulsed two attacks from the Bending resistance in order to retrieve her, the latter taking them by surprise by coming from underground via Earthbending. They'd learnt their lesson from that one, thankfully.

The 'execution', such as it was, was being held outside the old city hall, where a nicely decorated wooden stage had been quickly constructed for the event. There were Equalist guards at every entrance, and sentries littered the rooftops.

The hardest part of the event was to make it so that everyone could hear. Without Lightningbenders, the amount of freely available power in the city had plummeted greatly, but to be honest there was little to use it on right now anyway. People made do with candles and left their radios off, but there was nothing on them at the moment aside from Equalist propaganda anyway.

A small part of Ashur was greatly pleased whenever he was introduced to people by his assistants, since they were almost always surprised by his age. He was also a bit of propganda in himself, since Amon was quietly saying to the world, 'This young boy is only 16. Think what your children can accomplish under our rule!', though how many got that amid the other messages he was feeding them was anyone's guess.

The only thing that Ashur was definitely sure of was that there was growing paranoia in the city. The lack of electricity helped, as did the small curfew Amon had set, though it was far less strict than the one Tarrlok had foolishly placed, since it only came into effect at midnight rather than nine in the evening.

The real unease that was currently fuelling the city was due to the Bending resistance, and ironically enough it brought the city together under one banner against them rather than dividing them due to infighting. As soon as they were gone, the city would probably collapse, but all Amon had to do was feed them another target each time. It wouldn't be too difficult.

In a way, that was actually his fault too, like the importance of this event. Ashur had thought that merely searching for Benders hiding in the city would be too slow, and so with Amon's permission, he had thousands of posters placed in strategic locations in the city, informing people of the penalties for harbouring a Bender, and giving tips on how to recognise and report neighbours who were either doing so or were secretly Benders themselves.

It was harsh, perhaps, but that was what was necessary at the start of the regime. The unease was countered by the fact that there would regularly be public events like this, and so the anger was channelled in a useful direction.

A silence descended upon the crowd as some people walked up the stage to the microphone. Ashur himself started to move through the throng of people as he was to be atop it when the event took place as well. Amon had not appeared yet, but the fact that the microphone was being tested told everyone that they didn't have much longer to wait.

Ashur took his seat on the wooden podium. None of the people who were about to be Equalised were on it with the special guests; they were kept underneath the podium, where a clever contraption Hiroshi designed would raise them up one at a time.

Heavy footsteps suddenly descended onto the podium, and the whispered mutterings of the crowd started off. Amon stepped onto the stage with all the theatrical flair that people had begun to assign to him. He worse the same clothing as he always did, sadly. Ashur's attempts to get him to change into something more refined were met with stiff opposition, as Amon claimed that he should always be nameless, just 'one of the Equalists' rather than their leader. It was a lie, that he was first amongst equals, and they both knew that but it was an important one to keep going.

"Ladies and gentlemen, fellow non-Benders of Republic City, I thank you for coming to this auspicious event," he began. "I know that there is no place you would rather be, than here, where history is being written as we speak. When I was a boy..."

Amon then started to spin his usual tale. It was one that Ashur was sure was a falsehood, but the only bit that he knew was directly contradicted was the fact that he was a non-Bender. The rest, as far as he was concerned, could all be true. Frankly, he was an idiot if he claimed to have a disfiguring scar and actually didn't have one, but he could have easily burnt his own face or paid a Firebender to do it discreetly for his own advantage. After all, how far would you go to gain control of an entire city?

"...and today, we are blessed with having the Avatar here as one of the people we are to Equalise. For that, we have our own Ashur Shezler to thank. He braved the cold blizzards of winter with no food and no rest to capture the Avatar for you, the true people of Republic City. For three days, he fought tireless against her attempts to evade him, before he defeated her in single combat."

Ashur couldn't help but snort quietly to himself at the rhetoric. For such a deed, he was to be made more than a man. His name itself would be an immortal thing here, passed through the ages as either a blessing or a curse.

"Before we get to the main event though, a little something to whet your appetites," Amon snapped his fingers, and one of the attendants pulled a lever to the side of the stage.

Four people were raised to the centre of the stage behind Amon, each dressed in what you would describe as 'sterotypical Waterbender clothes'. It was an idea by Zan Dai, who suggested villifying them and tarring each with the same brush. Some here now wouldn't be able to think of Benders without thinking of these people. Each of them were criminals, specially chosen for this.

Ashur drowned out more of the speech. He'd heard it all before – He'd helped write some of it, even. Before moving onto the next one to be Equalised, Amon would tell the crowd of their crime. No matter what it was, the final ones listed were always 'The subjugation of the non-Bending people of Republic City', and then 'And being a Waterbender', or whatever type the person used.

Then, after each, he raised his hand for the crowd to be silenced. They followed his every word, spellbound by the effect, even if they were raucous just a second before, egged on by the Equalist plants in the audience. 'And what do you, the people say?', Amon would shout into the crowd, 'The people who ruled you before would set them free, to continue in their crimes! I say they deserve Equalisation! Do you, the people, agree?"

It was a good method, Ashur had to admit, to let the people think they were choosing the fate of these people themselves. In truth, they were whipped up into such a frenzy already that there was no chance that any of them would be let off, which was good, considering with the new laws they legally could not be set free without being a criminal for being a Bender.

As the crowd agreed with one voice to Equalise each of the Benders in turn, Amon would dutifully oblige, bringing the victim to the little platform slightly out into the crowd. He would give them a chance to repent, but ultimately, it all ended with Amon removing their Bending, and their slightly comatose body (from the Bloodbending, Ashur assumed, since it did hurt and paralysed you briefly) being dragged off.

Normally the policy now was to release Equalised Benders back into society, since they no longer were committing the crime of being a Bender, but these ones were all criminals even without their Bending. Even the old government would have locked them up, if it wasn't too busy dealing with the Equalists and they weren't members of the gangs, which they seemed to ignore.

The expected attack happened halfway through the Earthbenders, the last group before Korra was up. Three groups of Benders revealed themselves near the outskirts of the crowd. Ashur stood up, ready to go and help defeat the attacks, but the Lieutenant raised his arm in front of Ashur to stop him.

"Why not?" Ashur asked.

The Lieutenant smiled behind his mask. "You are a guest. It wouldn't do for you to get involved. For that matter, we are more than equipped to deal with such an attack."

And as Ashur watched what was going on, he had to agree that the man was right. The Benders were co-ordinated and knew what their objective was, but the Equalists had the crowd on their side, the crowd that had extra Equalists in as well. Sheer numbers meant that the Benders went down quickly enough, and the sudden presence of the platinum-cast mecha tanks meant that they had little chance in the crowded square.

Unsurprisingly, Korra's friends were in one of the groups – The Earthbender and the Firebender brothers, along with Hiroshi's daughter. The Councilman Tenzin wasn't there, most likely due to his family being under siege, and neither was the ex-Chief of Police (or the ex-ex-Chief, as she was now), probably for the same reason.

"It seems we have some uninvited guests," Amon said into the microphone. "Shall we Equalise them as well?" He asked, to roaring approval.

Of the forty Benders that attacked, half that number were captured almost as soon as they had attacked, reinforcements descending from the rooftops and ambushing the abushers, and the rest escaped. Korra's Firebending friend had to be dragged away by his brother, and it was that hesitancy to cut their loses in a futile situation that led to Asami Sato being taken out by a chi-blocker. Another half dozen were captured quickly after as they tried to escape, and brought back to be Equalised. Sadly, the rest of Korra's Bending friends managed to escape, but the fact that Hiroshi's daughter had been captured would no doubt please him immensely. Or not, depending on how vehement she was with him. Regardless, it wasn't Ashur's problem.

The festival was brought back to order very quickly, with the efficiency that Ashur had hoped the Equalists would exhibit in such a situation. The crowd though were getting restless. They didn't care about the small-fry any more, they wanted to see the main event.

Korra was brought up on her own, to thunderous jeers. This wasn't just from the plants starting it off, now the entire crowd was in on it on their own accord. She was shaking from the sheer terror of the situation, but her face was set. Ashur did feel sorry for her, after spending some time with her, but it had to be done. He was impressed that she wasn't in tears though. He would have probably expected that of any of the Mistborn nobility from home.

Amon stated out Korra's crimes: "She is convicted of the subjugation of the non-Bending people of Republic City, of being a Waterbender, of being a Firebender, and of being an Earthbender, and of the crimes of her many past lives. Does the Avatar deserve to be Equalised?!"

There was a resounding cheer.

Amon nodded. "As the people say, she deserves to be Equalised."

Korra was pushed towards what was pretty much the scaffolding for the execution in Ashur's mind. She resisted, showing there was still some defiance. She didn't try to escape though. She looked... Beaten, really. Like all the fight had been taken out of her This was her worst nightmare, after all.

"Do you have anything to say before you are brought to the same level as everyone else?" Amon asked.

The crowd went silence, waiting for the last words of someone who could be called the Avatar. After this, she'd simply be Korra, from the Southern Water Tribe. She wouldn't be allowed back into the City, not when she'd become a cause for the other Benders, a reason for revenge. In an Equalist cell, she'd be someone to forget about.

Korra was quiet for some time, obviously thinking of what to say. Finally, she looked up towards Ashur, who was still sitting on the stage. "I forgive you," she said quietly. No-one could hear it save for Amon, and Ashur with his tin-enhanced hearing.

Ashur nodded, and she looked relieved that the message had gotten through. She'd probably spent most of her time in the cells coming to terms with this, Ashur reasoned, and in the end, she just wanted to let him know what she felt about it. She couldn't have known about his enhanced senses, so she was probably just trying to get the message across any way she could. Maybe she hoped the spirits would tell him. He couldn't say.

Amon nodded, probably thinking that the words were meant for him. Then he took her Bending, in a single, short moment, and Korra of the Southern Water Tribe hit the wooden platform.

* * *

Thoughts?


	16. Raid

Ashur ran across the rooftops of the slums at a brisk pace. He had to, despite the fact he wasn't really in a hurry, since if he lost momentum he wouldn't be able to jump to the next rooftop. He was trying not the use steel to leap the distances, relying only on his excess speed from his pewter burning, the extra power it gave his jumps, and if necessary his staff.

The staff he held in his hands was what they called a quarterstaff here. It was different to the battlestaves back home, since it was designed to be wielded using both ends to fight, whereas the type he was used to was weighted at one end, to be used more like a cross between that and a club.

It was made of metal, an alloy of iron, carbon and platinum that was theoretically completely devoid of any other metals, so it shouldn't be able to be manipulated by Metalbenders. He could have used a wooden one, but it would have shattered far too easily in his hands. Plus, if he was really desperate, he could pull or push the staff.

Something he couldn't help wondering about was what the people inside the houses he was running across thought of the sounds of footsteps coming from above them. He'd never thought about such a thing back home, and he found it amusing.

As he came up to the next edge, he slammed an end of the staff onto the floor and pushed off as hard as he could. He managed to vault the next building entirely, which he had planned, and dropped down into an alleyway that was placed next to it.

He dropped down next to a group of four young people, his Mistcloak flapping behind him, tassels unconstrained by the breeze. It felt _right_ to have that back on. Better still, it was impossible for anyone to copy here due to the lack of the right wool, and he had made it actually illegal to try. The Mistcloak, though it wasn't known as such here, was the official garb of the High Inquisitor. Imitators had stopped after the first few arrests.

"Evening," he said to the three boys and girl that were crowding the alleyway. They stopped chatting and looked at him with varying degrees of surprise and cheer. He'd handpicked each of these four off the streets, and trained them himself as well. While each of them supported the Equalists, first and foremost they followed him. There was no way he'd let someone loyal to Amon get this close to him.

He had trained them all for about a month now, and this was the first time that they were all going together on a mission. He was quite amused by how good each of them already were at fighting, but then they'd have to be on the streets. They fought dirty as well, almost as pragmatically as a Misting would. So far they'd been underestimated all the time, but it seemed like the city was finally learning just how powerful they were.

Though each of them had the same background – No parents, no home, no education other than that of the street variety – they were still quite different from each other, and they'd all taken to this position in different ways. None of them were corrupt, since Ashur had said exactly what he would do to them if he found out that they were, but they were enjoying their new status in the world.

Cái, for instance, was turning out to be a bit of a glutton. He wasn't overweight, particularly with the harsh training regime that they were all under, but he was simply enjoying the world of food that he had missed out on as a child, when food was scarce. Ashur shook his head as the boy offered him a biscuit from a plain brown paper bag.

"No, thank you." He didn't really like the variety he had anyway.

Lien had the sort of personality that he would have expected on a Mistborn. Despite the fact she was female, she was treated just like everyone else, and didn't particularly care to act effeminate. It was probably something she had picked up from the street. It was no place for a young girl, even if the underground was more controlled than that of Luthadel. She was, as Cái had remarked once, 'one of the guys'. It was a little ironic, considering the meaning of her name was that of a flower.

Jin scowled a lot. In fact, Ashur couldn't remember any time that he'd smiled. He smirked sometimes, but that wasn't quite the same. Considering everything, it wasn't too surprising that he wasn't a particularly happy person, but even now he was still the quietest. He liked reading, and that was most of his pay went, apparently.

Yu was the last, and perhaps to counteract the depressing air that surrounded Jin, he wasn't particularly serious when not on-task. They were apparently old friends, which explained why Jin didn't get particularly angry whenever Yu tried to see what he was reading. Or at least, why he didn't get as angry as he would have if the rest of them tried it. He had that cheery attitude that Ashur couldn't help but associate with someone who's only smiling because they fear what they would be like if they stopped.

"So what are here for, boss?" Yu asked, leaning against the wall with his head resting against his hands so he didn't hit it on the hard wall. Ashur had suspected during training that his head was probably tougher than a brick, but they'd never had a chance to test it. Even if Jin was often tempted.

Ashur gestured with one end of his staff. It was proving a great prop for that sort of thing. He wondered why he'd never bothered with one of these before here, a weapon was always useful. Particularly since almost all the weapon here fought mostly with their fists. Leaving aside the extra reach, the fact that he was less likely to break his hand was good. Sadly, the staff couldn't conduct electricity through his gauntlets, but they were working on it.

"That house over there is hosting a number of Benders in secret. It belongs to a man who was part of the Triple Threat Triad before he lost his Bending, and even now he uses it to keep his friends safe. We are to bring all of the people in there for Equalising, same as normal. The owner is to be jailed, but he should come with us quietly since he has no real way to fight us."

"How many Benders are in there?" Lien asked, cracking her knuckles a little, or at least trying to through her electrified gloves. She was probably closest to the normal Equalist mentality of hating Benders, but there was an element of sadism in there most of the time too which was frankly frightening.

"We should be able to trap four in there, I believe," Ashur said. That was how many he'd found practising using his bronze. From there on, it just took a couple of enquiries to get the information he needed. People said that he was able to see if someone was a Bender just by looking at them. It was near enough to the truth.

"Earthbenders," Jin said, not looking up from his book. With Jin, one had to glean as much as one could from the situation, rather than his expression or tone of voice. "Could escape."

That one at least had a clear context here. "There is just one down there as far as I know, though one is enough to make it hard to take them out," Ashur explained. "Because of that, we have to take him down before any others, before he makes an escape route and collapses the tunnel behind him."

Cái finished his biscuits and scrunched the bag up, putting the rubbish in his pocket. "What about pre-made ones? We won't be able to stop them at all if they already have an escape route."

Ashur nodded. "Yes, which is why I want the four of you to check the houses and their basements beforehand. Check one the diagonals first. When you've checked them, go to the four adjacent ones. I will go in at that point. Do not allow anyone to impede you, they may be trying to slow you down. Understood?"

"So we don't get to fight?" Lien asked, frowning and folding her arms in disapproval. "That's not fair, is it? And how do you expect to fight four of them off?"

He sighed. They still didn't quite get the idea of following orders. "I have fought and defeated eight Benders at once. Admittedly, it was a considerably more open field, and I didn't have to capture them, but regardless. With the element of surprise, I should be able to take at least one out before they're even aware. The problem is just that they might escape."

Ashur knocked on the door, tempted to use his staff to do so but ultimately not giving into it. That would just cause all sorts of bad habits. And it probably wouldn't make a good sound anyway.

A man opened the door a littl; it was the former Bender, from Ashur's information. "Yes?" He asked, then he visibly paled and started to sweat when he saw Ashur there. "H-how can I help-"

Ashur didn't take any chances. He barged the door open before the man could call his friends. Denying him entry would be useless, since Ashur could just break the door down, but he didn't think the man would try that. Reaching out with his left hand, he sent a current of lightning through the man's arm, and he crumpled to the ground with a grunt of pain.

Ashur moved the man out of the door, so the people in the street didn't see and panic. He was radiating brass, ejecting a calming aura out from his body, but that was pretty much worthless considering how many people he was trying to affect, even in this small area. You'd need to be very powerful to achieve anything with it. No, there was no need to incite something accidentally.

The next thing he had to do was find the entrance to the basement. There were no stairs leading down, so it was either a hidden trapdoor, or possibly a door made or revealed using Earthbending. If that was the case, he had very little hope in getting down into it. It would trap them down there, but it was practically unbreakable.

Flaring his tin, he knelt down on the floor and placed his ear to it. He could definitely hear something down there, some people were talking. He could only make out mumbling, but it was reassuring to know they hadn't fled already. The ground was probably quite thick to block noises out.

Tapping the floor in various places, he tried to see if any part was thinner than the rest. Moving a rug aside, he was disappointed to not find a trapdoor. It would have been a bit obvious, but his job would have been easier. He kept tapping the floor, listening to the echo. None of the floor seemed thinner, but it probably didn't need to be if it was an Earthbender who remade it. Unless, of course, it was a wall rather than the floor that he needed to check.

Leaving the house briefly, he walked all the way around it, or at least as best as was possible. He tried to match the outer walls up with the inner ones that he saw while he was inside. The building was a single-story house, so it wasn't too hard.

There. The north-facing wall didn't match up with the interior, at least not properly. It would need to be a pretty thick wall for that. That did lead to the problem of how he was going to get into the building though, since he wouldn't be able to knock down the wall either with his fists or staff.

He tapped the wall and put his ear to it. He smiled as he realised that the wall here had been made thinner in order to accommodate the stairs on the other side. The building had been altered quite considerably it seemed to become a safehouae. He could get his way through this.

Placing his staff on the wall, he looked down the alleyway. No-one was looking down it, if there were people on the street at all. You did see a lot less crowding now, since quite a few people had just decided to leave, and some preferred to stay at home, out of the way of the Equalists. There was a definite culture of fear now, but that wasn't something he was concerned with. In fact, it was better if it continued, in his opinion.

Flaring steel and pewter, he braced himself against the wall opposite as the force of the building's wall on the steel travelled through him and to the wall he was against. It was painful, but thankfully it didn't need to last very long as the wall crumbled quickly against his weight. He could have probably gotten the same effect if he'd taken a long run-up at it, but that sounded like a very senseless thing to do, running at walls.

Picking his staff up, he descended down the revealed stairs at a run, leaping off the last one and barrelling into the first person who had gone to investigate. As he rose, he spun his staff around, catching a Firebender who had just tried to attack him by the hand. There was a sickening sound as the wrist broke, and the man howled with a combination of anger and pain. Ashur didn't feel particularly bad about that, since the man was both a criminal and had just tried to attack him. In fact, most of the people they went after were criminals. It was an easy way to win people over.

He swept the legs from under the Firebender and shocked the person he had tackled with his gauntlet. That was pretty much two down, though the Firebender could still try something. Ashur would have taken him out too, but there were larger priorities to deal with.

The Earthbender was not the one he had taken out first, or at least there was another Earthbender here, and he was currently making a tunnel for himself and another Firebender, which punched his element at Ashur, defending his friend, or at least his associate. Ashur spun his staff to deflect them, not worrying about the fact the metal was heating up much since it had a moderate resistance to heat, and the fires didn't last long enough for that resistance to be overcome.

Ashur picked up a cup from the table that they had been sitting at, dodging the fire in the mean time, and threw it at the Firebender. He burned steel, just to give it a bit of extra force, and the Firebender was forced to dodge it, cutting off the barrage temporarily. Ashur took him out with a quick jab to the stomach with his left hand, which seemed to be his second weapon of choice now, when holding his staff just in his right, followed by grabbing his arm and electrocuting him into unconciousness.

There was just the Earthbender left now, but he had already gotten away. The tunnel collapsed behind him, and from how it looked, he'd learnt his lesson about thin walls. On the other hand, if Ashur's geographical orientation was correct, and it usually was, he'd just gone North, so there wasn't anything to worry about.

Cái dropped the last of the three on the floor next to his unconscious friend, the one who owned the house. They had five people to take to headquarters, many knocked out and difficult to move, but Yu had already called for the new Equalist police to pick them up.

The Firebender with a broken wrist was glaring at them but remaining silent. He knew when he was beaten, it seemed, though the way his eyes were darting side-to-side suggested it was only a ploy that would last as long as it took for an opening, so Ashur gave him a quick shock and he was out too.

Jin had been the one that the Earthbender had tunnelled his way to accidentally, and he'd retaliated with the precise and well-directed force that they'd come to expect from the quiet one of the group. That was why the man was currently twitching and unable to move any of his limbs. Jin had taken to Chi-Blocking as well as Ashur had not, and the man probably wouldn't be able to Earthbend for the rest of the evening.

"Well, that's that!" Yu smiled, dusting his hands off. "Who wants a drink to celebrate?"

"We need to wait with them first, Yu," Cái pointed out. "But afterwards, yes."

"P-p-please don't do this," the man said, having difficulty with his words thanks to how much he was shaking. His eyes were red, and tears were forming. "D-don't let them take my Bending away!"

"Pathetic," Ashur muttered. "The Avatar was much braver than this."

"Please!"

"Oh be quiet!" Lien shouted at him, turning in his direction. "I can't stand whiners." She drew her steel-cap booted foot back, aiming to strike him in the head and knock him out, but Ashur grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her backwards, so she had to put the foot on the ground to stabilise herself.

"What?" She asked, irritated as she faced her leader.

"Just because they're Benders doesn't mean that you can go around hurting them like that. We're meant to be in charge, are we not?" Ashur pointed out. "We need to set an example."

"He's a criminal though," Lien said, giving another reason, though she at least no longer looked like she was going to do it whenever his back was turned. "What, are you sympathising with him?"

"No," Ashur shook his head. In truth, he sympathised with not wanting to be Equalised in principle, but that wasn't the problem here. "There's just no need to strike him like that. It's pointless."

"Feels like it has a point to me," she muttered, turning away from them all.

Ashur sighed. That was the problem with this group, one that he hadn't really foreseen. He had thought that going for orphaned street children would have at least meant they would be more sensible and cunning and wiser, if not more intelligent, than normal people. He hadn't counted on their vindictiveness and hatred of the world, at least in some of them.

"Go have a drink," he suggested. "All of you, that is. I'll wait with them here."

"Sure about that boss?" Yu asked, frowning. "I mean, you're the one who got most of them. Doesn't seem fair on you to do that as well."

Ashur nodded. "It's fine. I'm the one in charge, after all. And this was your first mission. Go and have your celebration. I'll be there shortly."

"Well, okay," Yu nodded. "Come on, Lien." When Lien didn't say anything, he repeated it louder. "Lien, let's go."

"...Fine!" She threw her hands up in the air in acceptance. "Whatever."

* * *

Anything to mention about this chapter? Eh, not as such, as far as I know.

Incidentally, thinking about renaming this stuff. If anyone has any good ideas, now you know what sort of direction this is going in, let me know.


	17. The Prisoner

Ashur sighed as he took a wooden cup of water from the mess hall in the Equalist Headquarters. He didn't like being here anymore. Not that he ever did, really; it was underground, and Ashur hated being underground like this.

Unfortunately, there were good reasons as to why the Equalists hadn't moved into the city hall. The underground HQ was surrounded by the sewageworks, and miles of pipes twisted around them in every direction. The sheer amount of metal and movement of waste shielded them from an Earthbender's detecting attempts, and the HQ itself had a lead lining to prevent a surprise attack.

He avoided this place as much as possible, prefering to live out in the city and only come here when it was absolutely neccessary. He hadn't even attended a top-level meeting, but that was mostly because he had no need to - his current job was merely collecting information and acting on it. Sometimes he was passed news or orders from Amon, but mostly it was the public that he listened to.

Frankly, he was quite happy to be as far away from Amon as possible, considering he knew how Amon took peoples' Bending away. Even after all this time, he still shuddered at the thought of having his freedom of movement taken away. He didn't show it, of course, but it was still a nagging image at the back of his mind.

He nodded to a pair of guards on the door of the room he was visiting. One of them was alert, though considering his glazed look, he was probably not paying attention to anything. The other was clearly bored, and looked the talkative type.

Ashur leant his staff on the door and took out a set of keys from his pocket. He looked through the myriad bits of metal, trying to remember which one he needed. He didn't even know what most of them were for. "I trust there's been no trouble?" he asked, since he might as well do something while he checked.

"None at all," the less stiff guard replied with a grin. "She's been completely quiet. Makes me wonder why everyone was so worried about her, you know?"

"Indeed," Ashur muttered, gritting his teeth. What was it about this sort of person that he hated? Perhaps the fact that the man was talking to him as if he was an equal. "Ah," he singled out a key and placed it into the lock. Before opening it, he looked at the pair of them. "I wish to speak to her alone."

"Oh, alone, eh?" The man was still displaying that grin. "Well, she's an attractive girl, that's for sure. Don't blame you for wanting to be alone with her."

Ashur put a hand to his face and resisted the urge to sigh. "I merely wish to see if she is alright."

"I'd like to see if she's alright, if you know what-"

Ashur's left hand darted out and grabbed the man roughly by the shirt lying on his chest and slammed him into the wall without a word of warning. Staff forgotten, differences in height and age forgotten, he glared at the man. His companion jerked to attention, but didn't interfere.

"Whether or not she is our prisoner, whether she has her Bending or not, Avatar Korra deserves the respect and admiration of all of Republic City. She is a powerful and skilled warrior, and is honest and wise, though brash and isolated. Understand that if you do not show her the respect she is due, I will suggest that she _teaches_ you that. Understood?"

The man didn't say anything, and merely sweated - and there was another unpleasant smell that Ashur's tin could make out as well. "Well?" Ashur asked, shaking him a little.

"Y-Yessir!"

"Now begone from my sight," Ashur told them both, dropping the man without a second thought. Without waiting for them to comply, he unlocked the door, picked up his staff, let himself in and closed the door.

The room that Korra had been imprisoned in was actually quite nice. After all, while she was the Avatar, and she was a Bender, all of that was past tense. She was now just a relatively normal girl, being held against her will. Not a particularly pleasant experience for anyone.

Even the most vocal detractors about Benders agreed that it wasn't as though she had actually fought against them after her capture, and she had been no trouble. However, they were still happy to throw her somewhere out of sight and forget about her, a fact that was making already a poor situation into an even more harrowing one for the girl.

If Ashur had to sum up how Korra had looked a few weeks ago, he would have had to say that she looked beaten. She was thoroughly demoralised, quiet and submissive, a complete reversal of her usual personality. And that had actually angered him.

And so Ashur had taken it onto himself to visit her a few times during those first days, at least to make sure that she had someone to talk to. After all, it wasn't as though they needed her here for anything other than stopping the remaining Benders from having someone to rally behind.

He had brought a few books for her, nothing particularly interesting since this place seemed to be mostly devoid of even the poorly written romances that the noble girls of The Final Empire loved so much, but he didn't think she would like them anyway. So he brought her what he could find.

Histories seemed to amuse her quite a bit, apparently because they often dealt with one of her past lives. Ashur hadn't been too surprised by that, since a being of such power couldn't help but warp the world wherever they were.

The first book he had brought that had been a geographical book had upset her greatly, since not only was she unable to leave the headquarters due to her current situation, but she'd been kept completely isolated before coming to Republic City. She wanted to see the world, apparently, and that had frustrated her quite a bit.

He had given her books on Bending theory and the Spirits that inhabited these lands, and she had been very interested in these. Despite losing her powers, Korra seemed to devour books that dealt with these topics.

"Why are you so interested in those?" he'd asked once. Korra hadn't replied, so he'd guessed that it was to do with regaining her abilities, or at least trying to reforge her connection to the world, which all Avatars apparently had as a part of their abilities.

Those three topics made up the majority of the books he could find that she might have found interesting, and with a third of them out before she even looked at them, Ashur had turned to more esoteric topics for her to study.

It was for this reason that Korra was doing something so decidedly ladylike, and thus un-Korra-like, such as reading a book on sewing.

"A riveting read?" Ashur asked, as he put his staff by the door and sat down on a wooden chair.

Korra looked up from her bed, where she was lying and reading. She swung her legs into a sitting position so she could talk to him properly. She was wearing a simple , conservative brown robe, since she had none of her own possessions here.

In fact, the only other things in the room aside from herself, the bed and the chair were a small pile of books that she'd read before, a tray with a fully-eaten meal on it, and a few games that Ashur had bought before. There was a table on which she could eat her meals, and another chair that she used when they played a game. Korra could be surprisingly patient when she had nothing else to do. He usually beat her, but that was because she wasn't used to thinking ahead, compared to Ashur, who did little but.

"Yeah, it's a real page-turner," she replied, putting it down on her lap.

Ashur couldn't help but grin at the sarcasm. It was a good sign. He'd come to find that he'd quite enjoyed spending time with the once-Avatar. He'd thought before that she was similar to Mistborn, and her boisterous and outspoken personality had confirmed it. It was good to see that she was getting some of that back.

Mind, he wasn't quite sure if they could be friends. Acquaintances, perhaps, maybe thinking of each other with a little fondness, but too long together and they'd annoy one another. Their personalities were just too opposite in the long-term for that not to happen.

"I didn't bring any today," Ashur admitted. "I've been a little busy."

Korra nodded. This was the other reason that Ashur visited. She had absolutely no information as to what was going on out in the wide world, since there was no human contact for her from anyone else. He didn't tell her too much, since for the most part it would just make her feel bad for being in here, but something was better than nothing.

"We've been finding a few more people," he explained. "I don't know whether I should be amused that people are so selfless as to hide Benders away at great personal risk, or annoyed that they're doing it despite how good we are at finding them. It's just a bit nonsensical."

"Like you?" Korra asked, a fleeting smile crossing her face before disappearing again.

Ashur couldn't help but laugh at that. "I guess so." Yeah, he really was becoming something of an enigma, and people were starting to realise it. They weren't saying anything in front of him, of course, they were either too scared of him or too stupid to see the dichotomy that he represented right now. But it was whispered, and he could pick up on it.

"So what's wrong?" Korra asked. "You're quite, usually, but not this quiet."

Ashur sighed, not sure of what he should say. After all, wasn't the saying 'two can keep a secret if one is dead?' Then again, if he mentioned it, it wasn't as though Korra could convince anyone that she was telling the truth.

"Amon's the problem," Ashur said to her, scowling briefly. At least there was no reason to hide his true feelings here.

"Never thought I'd hear an Equalist say that."

"They don't know what I do, Korra. Amon's a Bloodbender. I just can't prove it."

Korra went silent for a few seconds. "Like Tarrlok?"

"More powerful than Tarrlok," Ashur replied. "That's how Amon was able to overpower Tarrlok's Bloodbending - with his own. Of course, it's impossible to prove that someone's a Bender of any type without them showing it..."

"So trick him into showing it?"

"Bloodbending is a subtler art than anything else I've ever seen here," Ashur sighed. "I've watched him Equalise quite a few people now, trying to pick up on it. Did you know that he uses it when he lets people try and fight their way out, so they can't defeat him? It's ingenious. Terrifying, but ingenious."

"But if you can see how he does it, then surely-"

Ashur held up his hand to stop her. "I'm only able to see it because I know what to look for." It wasn't a complete lie. The clues were actually there, the problem was actually connecting the Bloodbending with those small movements that merely looked like part of the fight. "It's almost impossible to realise it otherwise. I only realised myself because of Tarrlok. I suppose that's something to thank the man for."

"Where is Tarrlok, anyway?" Korra asked. "Is he in a cell next door, or something?"

"He's elsewhere," Ashur said. "I could find out where, but I don't know right now."

"Oh," Korra nodded, letting the conversation drop. "Well, if I think of anything, I'll let you know."

"Thank you."

An awkward silence descended upon the pair of them. This was the main reason why Ashur didn't visit that often anymore. They simple didn't have that much to say to one-another, since Ashur didn't really like talking about his past, and he didn't inquire about hers all that much.

"Well," Korra cast around for another idea. "How about a game?" She gestured over to the pile. "I mean, you'll probably beat me, but... That's a point. How're you so good? You didn't even know how to play until I told you." She walked over and picked up one of the boards and the box of accompanying pieces at random.

"Well, that one specifically is similar to something I played back home," Ashur said, watching her as she pulled a chair over. "Aside from that," he shrugged. "I'm just intelligent enough to think ahead, unlike someone."

Korra chuckled a little, though it too was subdued, like everything else about her now. Before, she'd have become angry and probably doused him in water. Now she just took it in a good-natured manner. "And that's it? Maybe you should just teach me," she suggest as she started to place the pieces on the board.

Ashur sighed as he picked up one of the pieces. He liked this set, though he couldn't remember the name of the game itself. The pieces were expertly carved, and had surprising detail. "I suppose it's the fact that it's all strategy."

"Aren't most games?"

Ashur looked up at her as he put the piece back down, and then shook his head. "No, I meant that there's no element of chance involved. It all depends on the actions of the players. There's no chance that a move I make could have an effect I didn't intend, unless I missed something. There's no hidden information."

"So that's why you're bad at card games then," Korra confirmed with a nod.

The two of them played games for what was probably an hour, judging by the rate of decay of his tin supply. On his way out, Ashur collected his staff and opened the door. He never bothered keeping an eye on his staff or locking the door while he was in here. Frankly they could leave the door unlocked all the time and Korra wouldn't leave.

"Can you think of anything I should bring for next time?" Ashur asked.

Korra thought about it, then sighed. "Just more stuff I can do on my own, really. It's no good having games without having someone to play against."

Ashur nodded. "Understandable. I'll see you in a week then."

As he walked away from Korra's cell, a thought occurred to him. Of course, it would take a while to get it approved, but it would alleviate her loneliness issue a bit. It'd be a nice surprise though, something that would cheer her up no end.

In the meantime though, he had to go and see Cái for their patrol this afternoon. An Inquisitor's work was never done.

* * *

Hooray, it lives!

Sorry this took a while. It's just been a little hectic, with university starting up for the year again and so on. The problem is that, when I have time to write, I haven't been particularly motivated to write - And even when I have thoughts about writing, it's for other stuff that'll never see the light of day instead of this. Still, I've typed out a chapter tonight, so hopefully that will satisfy my few - but surprisingly interested - readers. Because of university though, don't be surprised if it takes some time for the next chapter to come out too. We shall see - Maybe because I'm working, I'll be more willing to type.

So, commentary on this chapter is a few things - Firstly, I wanted to show how captivity has affected Korra. I don't think it's too unrealistic that, after over a month, she's feeling this way, when she's only had Ashur for company. I also wanted to develop the relationship of these two a bit more, since they're quite interesting as contrasting characters. Note that this isn't a story with a romantic pairing. If there is one, I shall mention it nearer the end. Of course, if you feel strongly on this issue, feel free to comment on it. I'm always interested in what people think.


End file.
